


Don't Come Down

by Justeen_96



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), F/M, Galaxy Garrison, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gay Shiro (Voltron), Hunk & Keith (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, M/M, Matt Holt & Shiro Friendship, Matt Holt is a Good Sibling, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Protective Matt Holt, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Space Dad Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:28:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 57,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25622914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justeen_96/pseuds/Justeen_96
Summary: "Katie Holt? Like the Holt family that's up at Kerberos right now?" Lance asked Hunk."Yup! That Holt family." A girl replied, popping up around Lance and scaring him enough to make him jump. "You can both call me Pidge though. It's what my brother calls me."--"I'm Aurora, nice to meet you." Keith shakes her hand, pursing his lips. "Want to go find our engineer and do some bonding exercises!" She asks, her eyes sparkling, a smile wide on her face."Uhh What?" Aurora leans in and whispers."Want to find Parker and smoke marijuana up on the roof?" Keith laughed a bit nervously."You're insane.""I know, but come on!" Aurora grabs his hand and drags him past Lance, Hunk, and Pidge who are all talking animatedly about how this school year is going to play out but as the two of them pass, Lance notices them and his heart skips a beat.-x-Or where the Paladins never become Paladins and the trans-reality comet never hits Daibazaal.
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Matt Holt/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44





	1. The Kerberos Mision

_A Couple Months Previously_

"Isn't this exciting Shiro? We could be the first people to discover life on other planets!" Matt says excitedly as he pulls the ice core out of the drill machine. 

"Careful Matt, it's delicate." His father cautions him as Shiro laughs.

"You two get more excited over this science stuff than I do." He says with a small smile.

"But just think of the possibilities Takashi!" Matt said, jumping up with the ice sample in hand, stressing his father out as he began to wave it around. "If we find life here, then that means there could be other planets out there that also have life. Whole species! Isn't that incredible."

"Yeah it is but why don't you stop swinging that thing around before you give your father a heart attack." Matt looked over at his dad sheepishly who was a little red in the face.

"Sorry dad." Matt said with a laugh.

"Why don't we head back to the ship you two. I think we've collected enough samples for today." Matt and Shiro nodded and after packing up their equipment, they headed back to their spacecraft.

* * *

Shiro wandered towards Matt's room, a mug of tea in his hands. He was more of a coffee kind of guy but apparently someone had forgotten that and had only given the crew Matt and Sam's favorite brand of tea. that was fine though, Shiro had actually grown to love the taste of it. When Shiro walked into Matt's room, he was sitting at his desk crosslegged, his computer in front of him. His room glowed green from the string of numbers and letters flashing across the screen and Shiro turned on the bedroom light, causing Matt to turn around.

"You know, just because the Garrison fixed your eyes once doesn't mean you should destroy them again by sitting in the dark in front of a computer." Matt laughed.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to open my computer but I saw that I had an awaiting message." His eyes shone with mischief and Shiro sighed a little.

"What do you mean? Who are you talking to?" Shiro asked, leaning over the back of Matt's chair as he watched his friend type away furiously. It didn't really look like Matt was typing out any message he could understand.

"I'm talking to my sister, in code of course. She misses us a lot." Shiro rolled his eyes and took a sip of his tea. Of course Katie Holt could talk in code, she was a Holt after all and every Holt that Shiro had encountered was a different form of genius in their own right.

"Wouldn't the Garrison be pissed at you for talking to her?" Shiro asked, wondering what Matt was typing out so quickly. His fingers flew across the keyboard faster that Shiro could ever type, he had always failed those typing tests back in grade school. Adam always joked it was the one thing he was horrible at.

"Yeah but they won't be able to understand what we're saying." Matt said turning in his chair to look at Shiro as he held up a book. "Dad and I created this code a while back using this book and a series of additions and subtractions that only my dad and I, and now Katie, knew about. The Garrison could intercept the message but they wouldn't know what we're saying." Shiro grinned, always surprised by the genius of the Holt Family.

"Alright, so what is she saying?" Shiro asked as another message popped up on screen from Katie. Matt turned back to the screen and quickly read over the code. Before gasping and jumping out of his seat.

"Dad! Dad come quick!" Matt shouted at the top of his lungs. Shiro gave him a funny look. Matt didn't look distraught or worried, he looked elated. Katie must have given him some happy news. Far away, in a different part of the ship, Sam Holt heard his sons yell and jumped, startled.

"Matt! Shiro! What's wrong?" He shouted back.

"Dad! Come on, it's Pidge!" That got Sam Holt to move. He knew that Matt and Katie would be talking right now but he didn't know about what. If something had happened to his wife and daughter while he was away, he would never forgive himself. Sam ran to Matt's room and arrived breathless and worried. Matt laughed a little. "Calm down, Pidge and mom are fine." He said.

"Then what the hell are you yelling about?" Sam asked, straightening up.

"Katie got into the Garrison! She's going to be going to school there when we get back!" Shiro smiled as he watched Matt and Sam jump around and holler with joy.

"Let me talk to her! Let me talk to her!" Sam said heading towards Matt's desk and sitting down. Sam re-read the message Katie had sent, smiling wider than he could've thought possible before he began typing out his reply.

"Make sure to tell her I'm proud of her." Matt said, pointing at he screen.

"Send her my congratulations as well." Shiro said.

"I wish I was there to open the letter with her." Sam said as he typed out both Shiro and Matt's messages. "I bet her and her mom are going to go to our favorite restaurant." Matt groaned.

"God, don't remind me." He said, flopping down onto his bed. "I would give my right arm for a warm meal instead of all this freeze dried astronaut food." Sam and Shiro laughed. "We'll only be up here a couple more months." Sam reminded him.

"No, we'll be on Kerberos for a couple and then another four months will be spent getting back to Earth." Matt complained.

"You knew what you were getting into buddy." Shiro said, hitting his friends leg. Matt stuck his tongue out at him and Shiro grinned. Sam wiped a tear away from his eyes as he read Katie's new message.

"My little girl is growing up." He said in a contented, happy voice before turning back to his son and Shiro.

"Don't keep her up too late Matthew. She still has a curfew to uphold." He warned lightly before standing up from the seat.

"Alright dad. You don't stay up too late in that lab then. We can work on those samples tomorrow. We have a lot of time as you know." Sam laughed a little but nodded.

"Alright son. Goodnight both of you."

"Goodnight." Matt and Shiro said in sync. They grinned over at each other as Sam left the room and Matt went back to his computer. Shiro pursed his lips as he watched Matt begin to type out another message.

"I wish I could talk to Adam." Shiro said lightly. "I hate that I can't seem him everyday." They had first met as cadets at the Garrison and quickly became friends despite how shy Adam had been at first. They were chosen to be flight partners together because of their chemistry and then became real partners when they started dating. Most of the Garrison staff knew this when they were hired and Adam and Shiro were really professional about their relationship but going from seeing someone everyday to not at all was tough. Shiro missed Adam more than anything in the world.

"But aren't I prettier." Matt said, poking his own cheeks and making a face at Shiro. It got him to laugh but Shiro was still pretty upset. He was almost _positive_ that Adam was going to ask Shiro to marry him before he left but that never happened. Shiro knows he loves Adam but he also knows that Adam was a little iffy about dating a coworker, marriage was an entirely new level that they had barely even discussed yet.

"Want Katie to pass on a message?" Matt asked, smiling. Shiro sighed and smiled warily at his best friend.

"No that's a little embarrassing. She wouldn't even know who Adam is." Katie had _just_ gotten into the Garrison. Sure she could visit and ask to see Adam but it would be a little weird to have a fourteen year old girl pass on a message to him from Shiro.

"I might have to say 'Go talk to Captain Whitehall' but she would figure it out." Shiro shook his head. It was all too weird.

"It's okay. Adams a stickler about rules anyways. If he found out you two were talking and I was in on it he'd nag me to death." Matt smirked.

"Typical Adam." Shiro nodded as Matt's laptop pinged again. The line of code was shorter this time and Matt smiled a little. "Looks like she's listening to dad about curfew for once. Want me to say goodnight for you?"

"Yeah." Shiro said with a small smile. "You go to sleep too you genius." Shiro said, ruffling Matt's long hair, reminded of the Keith's messy black locks and feeling a twinge of sadness thinking about how sad he had been that Shiro would be gone for nearly an entire year.

"Whose going to get me out of trouble when I get into fights?" Keith had joked.

"How about you try and not fight other kids for once." Shiro had said.

"No promises." Keith said with a laugh.

"We'll be home soon Shiro and you'll see your weird little family again." Shiro flipped Matt off. He was always saying that Shiro had adopted Keith in some sort of way, even though Shiro himself felt too young to have a son Keith's age. Keith was more like his younger, brattier, rebellious brother. "Just be happy you actually have someone waiting for you back home. My lonely, single ass has nobody." Shiro chuckled.

"Goodnight Matt."

"Night Shiro!" Matt called out as Shiro exited his room.


	2. The Origin Story

Lance stood in front of the oster of flight teams and sighed in relief. Hunk's name was right there under his own and he couldn't be happier. Turning, he pointed at the piece of paper aggressively, smiling wide at Hunk who stood near the back of the crowd behind him. "It's there!" Lance shouted.

"Woo!" Hunk shouted out, pumping his fist in the air. "Whose our tech person?" He shouted over the sounds of other people getting into their groups, talking excitedly. Lance looked back at the paper as Rizavi pushed her way to the front next to Lance. She smiled at him lightly before pulling out a small notebook and jotting down several names. Lance noticed she was writing down Griffin's flight crew list as well as her own. She glance back up at him as she snapped her notebook shut. he never understood why a girl as pretty and nice as Rizavi hung out with Griffin who was just as hotheaded and egotistical as Keith Kogane. Maybe she saw something in him that Lance didn't.

"Ooo. You've got the new girl on your flight crew." Rizavi said, nodding to the paper.

"A new girl?" Lance questioned, glancing at the piece of paper again.

"Yeah, she's supposed to be really smart. While the rest of us have been here and training for a couple of years, this Katie girl just transferred." Lance looked back at the list. Lance McClain. Hunk Garret and...

"Katie Holt." Hunk said as the crowd thinned out around them, everyone moving of to talk and get to know one another. Rizavi waved goodbye to Hunk and Lance who waved barely waved back as they read over their names. Why did that name sound familiar to Lance? He didn't know any Katie's but... Holt... Holt... Holt. Lance snapped his fingers.

"Katie Holt? Like the Holt family that's up at Kerberos right now?" Lance asked Hunk.

"Yup! That Holt family." A girl replied, popping up around Lance and scaring him enough to make him jump. "You can both call me Pidge though. It's what my brother calls me."

"Oh man, this so cool! You're our tech expert! Your family is like, legendary. Have you met Shiro?" Lance said, trying his damndest to act cool even though he was totally freaking out on the inside. He was talking to Sam Holt's daughter. Hoe great was that! And if Kaite or Pidge, whatever, had met Shiro before then that was double cool! Shiro was Lance's hero. He had made some many Garrison records that nobody had every beaten before and in all the time Lance had been going to the Garrison, he had never once met Shiro. Pidge rolls her eyes a little.

"Oh yeah, tons of times. He's lame." She said with a slight smirk.

"What! No he can't be." Lance complained, making Hunk and Pidge laugh.

"I'm kidding. Shiro's pretty cool." Lance smiled happily.

"Awesome."

\----------

Keith looks over the roster and sighs. He doesn't recognize either of the names under his own. That's the problem you usually have if you don't bother to make friends, or if you only talk to other pilots. Not that Keith remembered most of the pilots names anyway. He only remembered the ones he hated like Griffin and Costello and the ones he liked like Kinkade and.... Who was that dark haired girl that always hangs out with him and Griffin? Keith sighed. He had always been shit at remembering names.

"Excuse me, pardon me. Coming through!" A loud voice said as he pushed his way to the front of the crowd, arriving next to Keith in front of the paper. Keith glanced at him. It was Lance. He's tall, dark skin, brown curlyish hair and possibly, the cutest guy at the Garrison but Keith wasn't exactly going to admit that out loud, especially seeing as how Lance seemed to hate him for some reason. Keith focused back in on the names and tried not to think about the fact that Lance was standing close enough to him that he could smell his cologne.

Moving out of the crowd, Keith wondered if he should stand somewhere obvious and wait for two people to approach him before he apologized for not recognizing them. Pilots, engineers, and techs don't aways have classes together but they see each other often enough for Keith to have at least recognized one of them. Just as he got out of the thick of it, someone tapped his shoulder. Turning, Keith found a girl with blue hair and a wide smile on her face. She looked Asian or at least half asian and she was holding a pen in one hand, two names written haphazardly on her wrist.

"Hey! You're Keith right?"

"Uhh.. Yeah." Okay, Keith was shit at names but he could've sworn he had never seen this girl before.

"I'm Aurora, nice to meet you." She's holding her hand out to him so Keith takes it. He shakes her hand, pursing his lips. "You probably didn't recognize me because of the hair change." She said flipping her longish hair over her shoulders. "Now that the dye is coming out, the blue is a lot more noticeable and it's pissing off a lot of the Captain's who think it's "distracting."" Aurora said, putting air quotes up. Keith grimace.

"Oh I'm just bad at names in general so I don't think I would have recognized you either way." Aurora giggled but Keith didn't know what was so funny about what he had said. The hallway was emptying of other students. Everyone was supposed to go somewhere to talk and get to know each other, create some sort of "bond" but Keith has never really been good at teamwork and anyways, their third partner hadn't bothered to reveal themselves. Aurora glanced around the emptying hallway and stepped closer to Keith. He stiffened but she merely began to whisper in his ear.

"Want to go find our engineer and do some bonding exercises?" She asks, her eyes sparkling, a smile wide on her face.

"Uhh What?" Aurora leans in again.

"Want to find Parker and smoke marijuana up on the roof?" Keith laughed a bit nervously.

"What?" He demanded. Was Aurora crazy? She brought weed to campus? It wasn't illegal in this state or anything but you could get suspended having it on school grounds.

"One of those guys back there said that Parker is a real pothead and is probably up on the roof right now smoking. Want to find him with me and join in?" She asked with a smile. Keith was flabbergasted, though his face probably didn't show it, unless his jaw had dropped without him knowing. "Come on, it'll be fun." Aurora said, still smiling wider than Keith thought possible.

"You're insane." Was all Keith managed to get out.

"That's not a no!" She sand out. Keith laughed nervously, feeling his defensive demeanor dropping by the second. How was she doing that? "It'll be fun." She insisted.

"I don't think I like your definition of fun." Aurora rolled her eyes.

"Live a little Kogane. Someone said you're kind of mean and standoffish. You want to live up to those sad expectations?" she asked. Keith frowned a little.

"We could get in trouble if we're caught." Aurora rolls her eyes.

"I know, but..." Aurora grabs his hand. "I've gotten in trouble for worse things. Let's go!" Pulling on his arm, Aurora starts to drag Keith down the hallway past Lance, Hunk, and Pidge who are all talking animatedly about how this school year is going to play out.

Lance catches a whiff of fruity perfume and is slightly pulled out of the conversation he's currently having to look for the source. A tall girl with blue hair, a Garrison jacket and non-uniform pants and a shirt is walking past them, dragging behind her a guy whose dark hair hangs in his face. Lance recognizes Aurora immediately. He had always kind of had a thing for her. She had a kind face and nice hair and ever since she had dyed it blue, his favorite color, it had only made him like her more. The person she was dragging along made Lance frown. It was Keith. Why the Garrison doesn't cut his mullet Lance will never know but then again, how Aurora gets away with dying her hair is another mystery.

Aurora turns slightly and Lance catches a glimpse of her face. Freckles across her nose and cheeks, bright brown eyes and an adorable smile. Lance feels his heart skip a beat as she locks eyes with him and then she and Keith are gone, heading up the stairs to the roof. "Who was that?" Pidge asked, pulling Lance out of his thoughts.

"Who was who?" Hunk asks, following Lance and Pidge's gaze but Keith and Aurora are long gone and Lance turns red over being caught staring. Hunk glances back at his best friend and a smirks when he sees the look on his face.

"It was Aurora wasn't it." Hunk said, already knowing the answer.

"No!" Lance snaps at him, making Hunk laugh.

"Don't even lie dude, it's written all over your face." Hunk said, flicking him in the forehead.

"Quit it." Lance whined, shoving Hunk's shoulder a little. "Aurora's just pretty is all and I can't believe she's Keith's tech expert. How unfair." He grumbled.

"Uhh should I be offended?" Pidge asked Hunk, her nose wrinkling up. Hunk chuckled and patted her shoulder.

"Don't be. Lance has had the hots for Del la Cruz for like two years now but has never had the balls to ask her out."

"I don't have the hots for her." Lance argued. "I just think she's pretty okay? There's nothing wrong with that." Lance said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I can't believe Keith gets to hang out with the her everyday from now on. How unfair." Hunk and Pidge laughed but Lance kept going. "Aurora and him are probably going to become best friends, start dating, and then get married and thats unfair."

"Dude they're just partners." Hunk said, hitting his friends shoulder. "And for all you know, she's already dating someone."

"Or she's a lesbian." Pidge pointed out. Lance blushed red a little.

"Well, either way I'm going to find out." Lance said determinedly. "And I'm going to ask her out before Keith ever gets the chance." Hunk patted his shoulder.

"Yeah, sure buddy. That's the same thing you've been saying for months now." Lance glared at him but his friends just laughed.

\----------

Up on the roof, Aurora breathed in the fresh desert air and smiled. "It was so cold at the Seattle base. I was glad to be transferred somewhere warmer." She said happily, spinning around to look over at Keith as he walked out onto the roof with her.

"Why'd you come down here?" Keith asked. Aurora had just explained to him that this wasn't her first Garrison school. It wasn't even her second actually but her third. That would've explained why Keith didn't recognize her but then Aurora told him she transferred here a little over two years ago and Keith just felt stupid again.

"My dad works for the Garrison. He got promoted here so I got transferred." She smiled.

"Whose your dad?" Aurora grinned.

"I'm not allowed to say." Keith arched an eyebrow. "Well I'm allowed to I just don't want to say it." Keith started to run over all the names of the important people at the base but he couldn't remember anyone named De la Cruz. "We don't have the same last name by the way. He's my step-dad but my dad all the same. He's the one who was there for me when I needed him, unlike my biological one." Aurora said with a shrug.

"What happened with your biological father?" Aurora twirled her hand around several strands of her blue hair nervously before spotting smoke on the far side of the roof. She smiled.

"Look! It must be Parker." Running past Keith and ignoring his question, she went to find out. A boy with a buzz cut, broad shoulders and arms sat on the edge of the roof, a joint in his hands as he stared out across the landscape. Aurora actually recognized him as a boy from one of her previous classes. She wondered how she hadn't put the name and the face together before. "Hey." Aurora called out tentatively. Parker turned to look at her and didn't even bother to hide the joint or anything. 

"Hi." He replied.

"Are you Parker?" he arched an eyebrow at her. "You and I are part of Keith's flight crew. I'm Aurora." Parker grinned and put the joint between his lips before standing up to shake her hand. "Some kids told us you would be up here."

"Yeah. I had a test earlier today and got super stressed out about it." Parker said with a shrug as Keith approached them. The air smelled smoky and sweet but also a little bad.

"I hear that." Aurora said, holding out her hand for the joint.

"You smoke?" Parker asked with a grin.

"All the time at my old Garrison. It became legalized in Seattle, Washington before it became legal here." Parker grinned.

"Nice." They both glanced back at Keith as Aurora put the joint to her lips and took a drag. "You want some Kogane? You won't tell on us right?" Keith shrugged.

"I'm pretty sure a lot of the teachers know what you do up here. You're just too good of an engineer to kick out." Keith replied. Parker laughed.

"That or it's my damn white privilege." He took the joint back from Aurora's outstretched fingers before holding it out to Keith. "Ever used one of these?" Keith shook his head.

"Well then we're really bonding now!" Aurora shouted. "Or creating peer pressure." She paused. "You don't have to be like us troublemakers if you don't want Keith." Keith said nothing at first and then, he walked over and took the joint from Parker's hand.

"There's a first time for everything. " Aurora and Parker smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, the song which this story is named after is one of my favoritesssss by The Maine who you should all listen too lol. Basically, Don't Come Down to me is going to be interpreted as like Lance/Keith feeling like they're flying every time they're around one another so they don't want to come down from that high 😊😊


	3. The Hello's and the Goodbye's

Aurora continued to brush out her hair as her roommate Ina Leifsdottir headed for the door, schoolbag in hand and ready for the day. "Leif." Aurora called out. "What's the weather like?"

"Sunny. Mid 80's. Perfect for a dip in the pool." Aurora laughed.

"Not with my hair." The color seemed to be fading from the top down, being light blue towards her roots and darker towards the ends. Ina shrugged and headed out of the room, the door opening for her easily. Aurora had been worried about rooming with Leifsdottir at first because she wasn't sure that Leif actually liked her. She was always so quiet, so reserved. Aurora thought it was because she didn't want to speak to her or because she had angered Leif in some way but when she asked Leifsdottir about it, she had simply cocked her head and said,

"I like you." Plain and simple and that had been enough to calm Aurora's nerves. It was eventually Rizavi who informed Aurora that Leif doesn't say much of anything. She's an intelligent and gifted pilot but her social skills aren't on the same level as everyone else.

"She's a great listener though." Rizavi said with a grin. "I don't know how many times she's let me talk her ear off before giving me some of the greatest advice I've ever received in my entire life." Aurora had smiled at that and often did go to Leifsdottir for advice. She just saw things differently than everyone else and it really gave Aurora perception on some things in her life.

When Aurora had first started calling her Leif instead of just saying her full last name, she had asked if that was okay with her and Leif had said. "Yes. It's more efficient and faster to say than Leifsdottir." Aurora had laughed.

"I don't want to call you Leif because it's efficient. I want to call you Leif as like a cute nickname, since we're roommates and all." Leifsdottir had stared at her a bit and Aurora wondered what she would say next.

"Can I still call you Aurora or would you also like a nickname?"

"Aurora is perfect Leif." Aurora had watched her nod, smiling the whole time. She had never met another person like Leif before and she was very glad that they were roommates.

* * *

Lance was absentmindedly doodling on his desk when Aurora walked into the classroom, pushing her light blue hair back over her shoulder as she walked. They had Professor Allen in this class and he didn't particularly like Aurora, mostly because of her hair, so she always tried to sit in the front row, just to piss him off. But today, her unassigned, assigned seat was occupied by Raker, who had just recently started dating Fairview and Aurora frowned. Where was she supposed to go now? Lance waved his arm and caught Aurora's attention. She walked towards him slowly.

"R-raker used to sit here." He said, gesturing to the desk next to him. "You could take his seat." Aurora smiled.

"Thanks. I guess I looked a bit lost up there." Lance nodded, his tongue feeling like a dead lump in his mouth as he tried to think of what to say next.

"Y-yeah. I didn't want to uhh say anything but uhh yeah." Aurora laughed as she set her books down on the desk and dropped her backpack to the floor.

"I'm Aurora by the way." She had had a couple of classes with Lance before but it's always good to introduce yourself to someone once you start talking to them.

"I know." Lance replied immediately. Aurora stared at him, waiting for him to say his own name. "Oh! I'm L-lance." He stammered out with a smile. He had never stuttered in front of a girl before. Jesus, what was happening? Aurora smiled softly, tucking strands of her hair behind her ears.

"What's your classification?" Aurora asked. Lance grinned.

"Pilot Class. You?"

"Tech. I'm kind of a genius when it comes to coding."

"You should meet my new friend Pidge she's really good at that stuff too." Aurora thought for a moment, recognizing the name.

"I think I have. Does she have brown hair, a little short for a fifteen year old?" Lance laughed.

"Yeah, that sounds like her. Her real name is Katie but, everyone's begun to call her Pidge like her brother does." Aurora nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah, Matt Holt. I remember him. He was a TA for one of my classes. He's a funny guy." Lance shifted anxiously in his seat as he watched Aurora reminisce.

"So uhh.." The bell rang before Lance could get the whole sentence out though.

"Hold that thought." Aurora whispered to him across the aisle. "Professor Allen loves to punish me at any chance he gets." Lance nodded and mimed zipping up his lips. Aurora giggled behind her hands before opening her books and pulling out a pen.

Lance knew he should be paying attention to what Professor Allen was saying but he kind of couldn't concentrate now that Aurora was sitting next to him. When she had been sitting up front, it was easier to listen to whatever the teacher was saying because she was farther away, out of reaching distance and now that she was next to him, all Lance wanted to do was pass notes like they were in middle school. So when a piece of folded paper landed on his desk, he was very surprised. Glancing over at Aurora, she mimed opening the folded note and Lance smiled.

_What is Professor Allen even talking about?_

Lance smiled as he read the note. He hadn't even been paying attention so he knew exactly how to respond.

**I have no idea. I'm not paying attention to him.**

😊 _Glad we're on the same page then._

Lance didn't know how Aurora had been able to draw the smiling emoji face so perfectly on this strip of notebook paper but she had. He wanted to continue talking to Aurora but after being called on for a question, and miraculously having the right answer, Aurora mimed to him to not send another note. Lance nodded, smiling. Professor Allen was on to them and Lance had gotten in trouble enough times in his class to not want to be under his harsh gaze again so soon.

As the bell rang, signaling the end of their class, Aurora stood and smiled at Lance. "Looks like we'll be sitting next to each other for a while." She said, glancing towards Fairview and Raker. The couple was walking out of the classroom hand in hand and it made Aurora smile.

"Yeah Ashly and Jordan have been flirting with each other for a while now." Lance said, sighing a little, wishing he could be in a relationship like that with someone.

"You know what's weird. We say each others last names so much around here that sometimes I forget what peoples first names actually are." Aurora said with a shake of her head.

"Y-yeah I mean I think a lot of people do that." Aurora finished shoving her books in her bag and smiled over at Lance as she shouldered it.

"Well uhh I'll see you around. My next class is kind of far from here so I should get moving." Lance nodded, part of his brain was screaming at him though to not just let her walk away, to take a chance.

"H-hey I was wondering if I could have your umm..." Lance blushed red under Aurora's gaze as his eyes fell to his feet. "Your number? I-i think it would be cool if we uhh hung out sometime, outside of class." Lance expected her to reject him as many people had done before. Lance expected her to laugh as has happened to him on more than one occasion. Lance even expected her not to hear him like Katherine had done when he had asked the same question of her. Instead, when Lance looked up, Aurora was smiling.

"Yeah of course. That would be fun." She said, already pulling out her pen again and tearing out a strip of paper. "Your flight crew and mine should get together sometime! I think we would have fun." Lance bit back his sarcastic remark about Keith and stoner Parker and watched as Aurora held out the paper with her carefully written number on it.

"Yeah, sounds good." Lance said with a smile.

"Well, I have to go." She said, putting the pen in her pocket.

"See you later Lance." Aurora waved and Lance found himself thunderstruck as he robotically grabbed his things and headed for his next class. Had he actually just gotten Aurora's number after all these years?


	4. Fight or Flight

"How is my beautiful Fly boy today?" Aurora asked, sitting down next to Keith and dropping her tray of food down on the table unceremoniously. Keith looked over at her startled. He was kind of used to eating his lunch alone. Well, not alone since other people would sit around him but alone in the sense that nobody would talk to him or try to make conversation and Keith liked that. He liked not having to come up with things to talk about.

"I uhhh.. Good?" Keith said, sounding unsure of himself. Aurora laughed as she threw one leg over the bench, keeping the other one on the outside of the table as she sat down so she could face Keith.

"Didn't expect to see me did ya?" Keith shrugged. "You were the one who said we should all hangout and eat lunch together. Then again, you were..." She leaned in and whispered "High off your ass but I thought it was nice that you like us enough to open up like that." Keith blushed a little. He didn't really remember much of what happened yesterday after classes or what happened before he had that complete paranoid break and had to be taken back to his dorm by Aurora and Parker.

They had assured him several times over that a lot of people do experience some strong paranoia while under the influence of marijuana and that it would pass eventually. He knew that Aurora had been trying to calm him down on the roof by running her fingers through his hair and rubbing his back but when that didn't help, Aurora and Parker walked him back to his dorm and Parker actually stayed with him, since Aurora isn't allowed to enter the boys wing, until Keith passed out on his bed.

"Uhh yeah I don't really remember that." Keith said, making Aurora laugh a little.

"It's fine. I'm going to hang out with you anyways because the Captain's said it's a good idea for us to have a strong connection if we want to kick ass, go to space and represent the human race." Keith arched an eyebrow at her, lips curling up in a smile.

"What?" Aurora laughed.

"It's something I've heard people say before and it's true, especially for us. I want to go to the stars and I want to be with you idiots when I do. I think you're both really cool." Another tray dropped down next to Aurora's as she said this.

"You're not so bad yourself Del la Cruz." Parker said with a grin. "You good Keith. You were looking a little dead at dinner last night." Keith shrugged. His roommate had woken him up when he had come in and unknowingly turned on the lights overhead. Keith had been bleary eyed and unfocused and Russell had apologized for waking him but Keith was glad he had done so. He was hungry and he had woken up just in time for dinner.

"Yeah I kind of was. I was super hungry but also felt super sluggish." Parker nodded.

"The strain we were smoking was more of relaxation. That's not the best kind to start off on." Aurora shrugged as she sat down properly next to Keith and began picking at her food.

"Next time we'll know better."

"Next time?" Keith asked.

"If you don't want to it's cool." Parker said with a shrug.

"But I want to show him the edibles. Those are more fun but also can get you fucked up if you eat too much." Aurora said, eyes bright with enthusiasm.

"Where'd you get the edibles?" Parker asked. Aurora shrugged.

"I have a source." Parker rolled his eyes and immediately launched into a discussion about some pretty cool shop you could buy weed at in Seattle. Keith wasn't paying attention to their conversation too much though. He was still thinking about how weird it was that he actually, sort of, had friends. He had never hung out with people like Parker or Aurora before and honestly, when he had seen their names under his on that roster, he wasn't sure he would even come to like his teammates. How wrong he had been. Keith smiled now looking at Aurora and Parker argue. He had never though he would feel so comfortable with two people so quickly before. It was a weird change from what he was used to.

* * *

Lance huffed and crossed his arms over his chest as he watched Aurora, Parker and Keith laugh and joke around together across the room. Pidge brushed her hair back over her shoulders before flicking a blob of jello at Lances face with her spoon. When it hit him, he turned to face his friends startled as Hunk and Pidge laughed. "What was that for?" Lance complained.

"You have got to get over this obsession Lance." Hunk said, pointing behind him towards Keith, Aurora and Parker. "You can't be mad at her for hanging out with her flight crew and becoming friends with them."

"I'm not mad." Lance lied. "I just don't like that her pilot is Keith. I could've been her pilot!"

"But then you wouldn't have me." Pidge pointed out. "Keep wishing that Aurora was here in my place and I'll have no choice but to fill your room with bugs and scorpions from the desert."

"Ew." Hunk complained. "Don't do that. He's my roommate." Hunk frowned and Pidge just shrugged, smiling.

"I won't, as long as he stops making moony eyes at Aurora."

"I'm not making moony eyes." Lance argued even though he had _clearly_ been making moony eyes. "I'm just appreciating the view." But when Lance turned to look back at them again, a tall figure was standing right behind Keith, Aurora and Parker, blocking Lance's view. He frowned.

"Griffin." He muttered under his breath.

* * *

"Well look at you three. The brains, the stoner, and the troublemaker. You're like a bad sitcom in the making." Aurora rolled her eyes. Was this what it felt like to be on James' bad side?

"Go away Griffin. We were having such a pleasant time without you." Aurora said, unbothered by his comment.

"What? I'm just saying, it's not everyday we see a trio like you all walking around."

"Ignore him." Parker said, taking a bite out of his sandwich. "He's just upset because he got Smelly Gab as a tech expert." Griffin scoffed.

"I'm not upset. I just don't know why Iverson would give me, his number one pilot, a second rate Tech expert. Shouldn't I have gotten the smartest girl on my team and not Gabe?"

"I think your beef is with whoever has Pidge." Keith said through his teeth, trying not to turn and look at him. "Everyone knows she's the smartest."

" _Fine_ , I don't know why Keith got the _prettiest_ tech expert instead of me." Aurora glared at him.

"Don't insult Pidge and don't make me laugh James. You and I both know you don't think I'm pretty. You're just trying to rile up Keith." And it was working. Keith was one more sarcastic comment away from getting up and decking James, again.

"Please, one more stunt from him and Keith _will_ get kicked out. He's a _flight_ _risk_ and with Shiro gone, there's no more running to _daddy_ to complain." Keith stood up so fast it startled Aurora. Keith climbed out of the table as Aurora tried to grab his arm. The two boys got in each others faces. James was grinning like a fool. "Hit me Kogane. I dare you." Aurora watched Keith ball his fists and knew she had to act fast. Grabbing up her water bottle, she uncapped him and threw the liquid into James face, dousing Keith a little as she did. Both boys looked over at her startled.

"Wha-" Keith began to ask before Parker shouted,

"Food fight!" And threw what was left of his bag of chips onto Griffen's uniform, leaving large orange stains. Quickly, everyone in the cafeteria followed suit. Sandwiches, salads, and drinks were flying. Jello was hitting the ceiling and people were slipping on mustard. And for once, instead of using their fists, Keith and James were attacking each other with food.

That is, until Iverson came in.

* * *

"Hey, you told us to bond as a team!" Aurora argued and Keith really wish she wouldn't, it would only make their punishment worse. "We were defending one another. Griffin was being rude and disrespectful and instead of letting Keith get into another fist-fight with him, I turned it into a food fight. It's easier to clean up food than it is to clean up blood." Keith's eyes widened in surprise. That's why she had thrown her drink at him? That's why she had gotten Parker to yell food fight? Keith had only had one one other friend care about him so much to try to protect him in this way and that person was currently up in space, unable to get him out of this sticky situation. Iverson took a deep breath in through his nose before exhaling through his mouth.

"Cadet De la Cruz, Cadet Jenkins I appreciate you helping your very, very temperamental Pilot but next time... Just hold him back instead of throwing food around." Aurora and Parker breathed a sigh or relief. "And Cadet Kogane, you should be thankful that these two have your back."

"I am." Keith said confidently. Aurora smiled at her Pilot and saw that Parker was smiling as well. Iverson shook his head a little before saying.

"Dismissed."

"You're not going to punish us sir?" Aurora asked.

"Would you like me to De la Cruz?" Iverson said.

"No Sir, thank you sir." Parker said, grabbing Keith's arm and then Aurora's before tugging them towards the office door. Aurora wrenched it open and the three friends fell into the hallway. Iverson watched from the window of his office as the three Cadets jumped up and down happily and hugged one another. It was mainly Aurora doing the jumping and hugging but Parker and Keith looked just as excited as she did about not being punished. Iverson smiled a little. He knew putting Keith with Aurora would be a good idea. Although neither of them have a good track record, Aurora's optimism and enthusiasm was infectious and exactly what Keith needed to break out of his shell.


	5. When You Are Next To Me

_Aurora_ 💙  
 _Hey Lance! Want to go to the movies?_  
 _That new horror flick has finally reached our dinky little town._

**Lancey Lance**   
**Hey! Yeah that would be great!**

_Aurora_ 💙  
 _Awesome! I've picked the 7:30 showing._  
 _Invite Pidge and Hunk too. Keith and Parker already said they'd come as well so this should be fun_ 😊

Lance immediately frowned and felt like throwing his phone across the room. He thought for five heart pounding minutes that Aurora was asking him out, only for him to realize this was a group thing. All week, Lance had been trying to work up the nerve to compose a text to Aurora but he didn't know what to say. _Hi_ seemed to casual. _Hello_ seemed to formal and _Heyyyyyy_ seemed desperate. So in the end, Lance decided to say nothing and hoped that eventually, he would be able to charm Aurora enough in their shared class for her to realize he was flirting with her.

"What's up?" Hunk asked turning around at his desk after hearing Lance scoff. He was glaring at the ceiling, splayed out on his bed.

"Aurora wants to go to the movies." Lance grumbled. Hunk arched an eyebrow.

"And thats a bad thing? I thought you liked her?"

"I do." Lance said, sitting up. "But she told me to invite you and Pidge and that Keith and Parker are going with her too."

"Ahhh." Hunk said, nodding. "So not a date."

"No." Lance groaned, flopping back down. Hunk laughed a little.

"Well if you really want to go and upstage Keith or whatever, I'll go with you. I'm sure Pidge will too. I could distract Keith. She could talk to Parker and you can strike up a conversation with Aurora." Lance smiled and looked over at his best friend.

"You would do that for me?"

"Of course buddy." Hunk said with a smile.

"You're the best Hunk. Let's do this." Lance said, leaning nearly all the way off his bed to give Hunk a high-five. Hunk laughed and wheeled his chair closer before high-fiving Lance. "I will make Aurora mine!" Lance said determinedly.

"Sure buddy, sure."

* * *

"You invited who?" Keith demanded, feeling like his heart had just dropped to his stomach.

"Hunk, Lance, and Pidge. You know them right?" Aurora asked as she took her jacket back from Keith's hand and pulled it on up over her shoulders. She didn't think she would need it and so had tied it around her waist but once the nighttime air hit them, Aurora knew she would need to put it on. And that also meant she had to tie her hair back because the wind blowing the dust and dirt around was going to mess it up if she didn't.

"Y-Yeah but I've never hung out with them before." Keith stammered out. Aurora nudged him a little.

"Don't worry loner, you'll be fine. You'll have Parker and I as a buffer!" Keith felt his phone vibrate in his own jacket pocket and pulled it out, the leather crinkling as he did. On the screen was Parker smiling dorkily at Aurora who was sticking her tongue out at him. It was the contact photo his friends insisted he take of them.

"Hey man where are you?" Keith asked. Parker said he would join them outside around five and it was already ten minutes past that. Which meant that Hunk, Pidge and Lance were also late.

"Yeah I think I'm actually going to stay here and do homework for once." Aurora gasped, having heard what Parker said from Keith's end of the phone and grabbed it from him, putting Parker on speaker.

"Parker Jenkins, going to do homework? Man I wish I could see that." Parker laughed.

"Hey I do my homework... Sometimes. This is one of those times. Just tell me about the movie afterwards though. Aurora's so good at storytelling I'll feel like I was there anyways."

"Ahh you flatter me." Aurora said with a laugh.

"But Parker it was supposed to be the three of us against the three of them." Keith complained. He felt like he was a man down already with Shiro gone. Keith knew he could always talk to Adam but he hadn't known him as long as he had known Shiro. Keith didn't think he would latch onto Parker so quickly, especially since he was a pothead but it would've at last been nice to have a guy around to be on his side. Knowing Aurora, If Lance and Keith got into a fight tonight, she wouldn't pick Keith's side. She'd say they were both in the wrong and tell them to shut up and to kiss and make up and Keith hated the thought of that.

"What are we fighting them?" Parker asked.

"Keith's just being dramatic don't listen to him."

"No I'm not. Everyone knows Lance doesn't like me all that much." Aurora shook her head at him.

"Well... Lance is sweet and so are you! I think you both just need to hang out to realize this." Keith wasn't so sure about that. He swallowed hard, feeling a lump in his throat.

"Yeah why do you guys even hate each other?" Parker asked. Keith didn't actually know. Lance just started making snappy comments at Keith a couple years back and he was never one to not retaliate. Keith had never actually physically gotten in a fight with Lance, despite getting into many with Griffin, because he wasn't exactly sure what Lances problem was with him. With Griffin, it was obvious. He had always been the center of attention, especially when they were junior cadets. But once Keith out shined him in the pilots test, proving that he was one of the best fighter pilots in their class, Griffin wasn't too pleased about that.

"I don't hate him. He hates me. I don't interact with the guy enough to have much of an opinion on him." Keith lied. Shiro would beg to differ, maybe even Adam. It was actually Shiro who pointed out that Keith had a mini crush on Lance about a year or so ago and although Keith had defined it profusely, he also knew that Shiro was right.

When Keith had realized he was gay, it had been when he was eight at the orphanage. He had never really took a liking to girls before. He thought they were nice and all but their voices seemed to high pitched and their obsession with stickers was weird. When a new kid of about ten years old arrived at the orphanage, Keith was drawn to him immediately. Grayson was funny and knew a lot about space and treated Keith nicely. He had been the first one to do so in that crummy building. And when Grayson was adopted and left, Keith felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. He felt that way for months before he finally figured out what it meant.

And the only people in the world who knew his secret were Shiro and Adam.

"Alright well, Aurora good luck with our Pilot. Try to keep Lance and him off of each other." Aurora giggled and Keith tried not to blush. "I'll talk to you guys later."

"Bye Parker."

"See ya." Keith murmured before Aurora hit the end call button.

"Ah don't look so upset Flyboy." Aurora, said nudging him a little. "It'll be fun." Keith would have argued with her but then two people appeared in the distance and Keith recognized them immediately. Hunk and Lance. "Oh! There they are!" Aurora waved and the boys began to head straight for them as Keith shifted his weight around nervously. "Hello boys." Aurora said with a grin. "Where's my Pidgey?"

"She couldn't come after all. She got wrapped up in some coding assignment." Hunk said with a shrug.

"Ah yes, Captain Korson's class." Aurora nodded gravely. "I should be doing that too but here I am. Now let's go have fun." She said, bounding down the half deserted street towards the bright lights of the town just a block away. Lance and Hunk followed after her, Hunk zipping up his jacket as they passed Keith who stood a little motionless. Lance had given Keith a funny look when they walked up and Keith couldn't figure out why. Was something on his shirt? On his face? What... "Come on Flyboy!" Aurora shouted out to him. Keith looked up, realizing they had gone quite a distance already.

"Coming!" He shouted back, taking off at a jog, all the while thinking _this is a bad idea. This is a bad idea. This is a bad idea._

* * *

"I'm getting popcorn for all of us." Aurora said, heading towards the concession line. Lance was about to ask if she wanted help paying but Keith beat him to it.

"Want me to pay?" Aurora snickered at Keith and patted his cheek. "No idiot. It's fine. It's like six bucks." She smiled at both of them. "Be right back." Keith's voice got stuck in his throat. He didn't want to be alone with Lance. Hunk had just headed to the bathroom a minute before Aurora decided she was hungry and Keith knew from experience that every conversation he's had with Lance ends up in some weird fight so he wasn't exactly praying to be alone with him, even though that's what he thought about on occasion.

"Excited for the movie?" Keith almost wanted to punch himself in the face. What a dumb fucking question.

"Yeah it'll be cool. I've always liked slasher films." Lance said with a shrug. Wow. He didn't give Keith some sort of sarcastic response for once. Keith felt excitement bubble in him a little.

"So have I. The Freddy Krueger movies are my favorite." Lance scoffed.

"Freddy? Really, dude it's all about the Scream series. I loved the movies and I was so psyched for the TV show. I was bummed when they cancelled it after their second season."

"I didn't know there was a scream TV Show." Keith said in surprise.

"You _have_ to watch it. The girls in it are really pretty and the plot twist _actually_ surprised me. It's on Netflix still I think." Keith pursed his lips. He didn't have a Netflix account. He didn't even have a laptop. He always used the ones in the computer labs to do homework.

"I don't have Netflix." Keith said sheepishly, kicking at the carpet. Lance glanced over at him. Was Keith blushing? Why did he seem so nervous? Was it because he liked Aurora? Lance frowned a little.

"We should watch it sometime then. My family has Netflix. We could do another one of these things as a group and actually make sure Pidge shows up."

"And Parker." Keith added, smiling over at Lance. Lance was kind of surprised by their weirdly pleasant conversation. He need to turn this around. He needed to ask Keith about Aurora. "So, are you good friends with Aurora?" Keith was confused by the question. Lance sounded kind of... Hostile and he was eyeing him almost with a look of contempt. What had just happened?

"Uh, Yeah. She's my tech expert. If we weren't friends it would kind of be... Awkward." Lance seemed to roll his eyes at Keith's answer and he frowned.

"Yeah but are you _friend_ , _friends_." Keith gave him an 'Are you stupid' look which Lance didn't appreciate and before the two boys could get into one of their famous arguments, Aurora came back with a large bowl of popcorn.

"The guy gave me a large instead of a medium but let me pay for a medium." Aurora said excitedly, stuffing some popcorn into her mouth. "He said it's because I'm pretty though I have no idea what he's talking about." She continued through a mouth full of food, making Keith bust up laughing. Lance was surprised. He wasn't sure Keith _could_ laugh until right now. Hunk reappeared, smiling at his friends.

"What'd I miss?" Keith chuckled

"Aurora's pretty and we have a lot of popcorn. Let's go watch the movie big guy." Keith said with a large smile, gesturing towards their theater. On their way past the concession stand, Keith grabbed one of the smaller popcorn boxes and popped the cardboard into place before handing it off to Hunk who held it steady as Aurora poured popcorn into it.

"So, did you figure out if they were together or not?" Hunk whispered to Lance as Keith and Aurora headed for the correct movie theater. Lance shushed him even though hunk had been quieter than Lance was being right now.

"No I didn't find out anything. Keith was being evasive."

"Why don't you just ask Aurora if she's seeing anyone or not?"

"Because. Now shut up Hunk and let's watch this movie with Mullet and Aurora."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those wondering, Don't Come Down is the name of song by my favorite band The Maine and some of the chapter titles are lyrics from that song, including this chapter.


	6. Like, Like

"So how was the movies?" Parker asked as Aurora and him squeezed past several young Cadets to get to their next class.

"It was fun! I sat between Keith and Lance so they wouldn't start a fight like Keith said they might. They seemed to be getting along though so I don't know what he's talking about." Parker shrugged and tried to straighten out his Garrison issued uniform.

"Don't know. I didn't even really know before yesterday that Lance hates Keith. They got into fights as Cadets but I thought they got past all that." Aurora licked her lips, thinking.

"Maybe they harbor feelings for one another." Parker snorted and Aurora elbowed him in the ribs. "Don't be homophobic they might."

"No, it's not that." Parker said with a laugh. "It's just..." Parker paused and shook his head.

"Just what?" He sighed and the two friends paused in the hallway.

"Look, maybe I shouldn't tell you but I thought it was kind of obvious..." Aurora waited for him to continue. "Lance likes you and maybe he thinks you and Keith are a thing, he could be jealous." Now it was Aurora's turn to laugh. "At least that's what Hunk told me once last year. He briefly mentioned that Lance talks about you a lot." Aurora stared at him, wondering if what he was saying was true. If it was that was kind of awkward.

Aurora had a couple crushes before on different people at the Seattle Garrison and here but she was always too focused on school to pursue anything. Besides that, she was kind of into older guys like Matt Holt, Carter Kane and Magnus Chase, all boys who had graduated just two years ago. One of which was still working at this Garrison. Kane was a big doofus with nice skin and dark eyes that Aurora liked to flirt with on occasion because he was always so surprised by her forwardness. Since he was 21 though and she was seventeen, Aurora never took the flirting farther than she knew was comfortable for him.

"You're lying." Aurora said but Parker just laughed.

"I'm not. I swear." He vowed. "I don't know if Lance likes you _now_ but I'm still under the impression that he is." Aurora shook her head. Parker was crazy. Lance didn't like her. Sure he stuttered around her sometimes and... Blushed and... Got this dreamy look in his eyes. Oh my god maybe he did like her.

"Oh no." Aurora murmured. Parker snickered.

"Let him down easy De La Cruz. Unless you feel the same way that is." Aurora pursed her lips. She didn't, she was sorry to say. Lance was cute and really sweet but if he did like her, she didn't return his feelings.

"Man I hate doing this." Aurora grumbled.

"Break hearts often Cruz?" Parker joked.

"Yeah I broke yours didn't I?" She joked right back. Parker scoffed.

"You wish." He said with a roll of his eyes. "You gonna talk to Lance?" Aurora pursed her lips.

"Yeah I should. He might not feel the same way anymore.. Hopefully. Otherwise things might get a little awkward." Parker shrugged as they entered their classroom.

"Maybe but you're Queen at getting out of bad situations." Aurora laughed. He was kind of right. She was good at getting her friends out of awkward/ bad situations but she wasn't all that good at getting herself out of them, unless they involved a higher authority. Adults she could handle. Her peers was a different story.

 _Aurora_ 💙  
 _Hey! Want to eat lunch with me today Lance?_

**Lancey-Lance**   
**Yeah. Pidge, Hunk and I will head over to your table this afternoon.**

_Aurora_ 💙  
 _Oh no, I meant just the two of us. I wanted to talk to you about something._

Lance stared at the text message in shook Just the two of them? Just him and Aurora? Him and Aurora together? Lance was practically shaking in his seat except... What did she want to talk about? Was something wrong? Did something happen? Had she realized how amazing he was and wanted to ask him out and was too embarrassed to do it in front of the others? No, that didn't sound like Aurora at all. Either way, he needed to reply.

**Lancey-Lance**   
**Sounds good! See you at lunch**

Lance could only hope that nothing bad was going to happen today at lunch.

* * *

Aurora waved Lance over as he turned around in the lunch line to look for her at a table. He had avoided checking when he first walked in, not wanting to look anxious or desperate. Aurora had something to talk to him about and when girls want to talk it's never a good thing. "Hey." Lance said, feeling nervous as he sat down in front of her.

"What's up?" Aurora asked. Lance shrugged.

"What did you want to talk about? It sounded a little serious." Aurora pursed her lips, looking nervous before she smiled a little.

"Let's eat a bit first okay?" Lance nodded and started to meekly eat his food. His mind was reeling as he tried to think of all the things Aurora could talk to him about. Had she seen the doodles of their names in hearts in his notebook? Had Hunk or Pidge mentioned something about his infatuation? Had Keith said something bad about him? If he had, Lance was going to deny it.

Aurora chatted aimlessly about the homework in their shared class, saying how it might be a bit difficult even for a genius like her and Lance laughed at her jokes and smiled but her mind, much like his, was just as preoccupied. She couldn't just not say anything. She had to ask him. The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"Do you like me?" the words came out of Aurora's mouth so suddenly, Lance just stared at her and blushed.

"I uhh.. Yeah of course I like you. We're friends." Aurora searched his face, as if trying to see if he was telling the truth or not. Seemingly satisfied, she leaned back and took a bite out of her sandwich.

"Good. Someone told me something different."

"Told you what?" Lance asked.

"That you might like me as more than a friend." Aurora said nonchalantly, shrugging. "That's why I'm asking. I wanted to make sure you didn't." Lance's mouth felt dry.

"What if I did? What would you... Say?" Aurora stopped chewing and realized her mistake. Lance wasn't blushing because he was embarrassed that someone said he liked her. He was embarrassed because he _does_ like her.

"Oh my god do you?" Aurora whispered. Lance's blush spread and Aurora slapped her hand to her forehead, feeling stupid. "My god why do I suck at this. Lance I'm sorry. I'm not trying to embarrass you I just suck at... I'm no good at dealing with..." Aurora gestured out, unable to find the right words.

"Feelings?" Lance prompted. She snapped her fingers and pointed at him.

"Feelings. Yes, sorry. I'm terrible at them. Especially other peoples emotions towards me that aren't... Neutral. Fuck." She grumbled to herself, wanting to bang her head on the table until she passed out. How could she be so careless? Why hadn't she noticed? What was wrong with her?

"It's... Okay." Aurora shook her head.

"It's not okay." She took a deep breath. "So you do like me? As more than a friend."

"Yes." Lance breathed out, surprised he was able to admit it. "For a little over two years actually." Now it was Aurora's turn to blush.

"Fuck." She whispered.

"Are you mad?"

"No I'm just... Surprised. I'm not that cool or great or anything." Aurora said while looking totally cool and great in Lance's eyes.

"I think you're really funny and pretty and I like hanging out with you."

"I do too Lance." Aurora murmured, staring at her food. "And I'm sorry but... I don't feel the same way." Lance felt his heart sink all the way to his stomach. "You're cool Lance! I like hanging out with you. I want to be friends." Aurora instead.

"Okay." Lance said feeling like his ears were ringing and his stomach was twisted so tightly into a knot that it would never come undone.

"Can... can we do that? Can we be friends?" Aurora was looking at him so sweetly, so expectantly that lance found himself sighing and saying,

"I think so." Even though he definitely didn't think he could _just_ be friends with Aurora. She was so pretty and understanding and fun and everything Lance liked in a girl and more. How could he be around her and not want to be with her?

"Good." Aurora said, relieved. "I'm glad."

"So am I." Lance said, his heart in his throat. "Are you... Are you with someone? Because you can just tell me Aurora." Aurora was already shaking her head though.

"I'm not Lance, I would tell you if I was. I'm just... I'm not looking to be with anyone you know? I've always felt like I should wait to finish school before getting into a relationship like that." Lance wanted to agree with her but he couldn't. He loved love. It was something he craved so badly that it hurt to fen think about it sometimes. He had hoped to give his love to Aurora but now he could see that she would never feel the same way.

* * *

"She dumped me and we're not even together Hunk!"

"Technically," Pidge said. "She didn't dump you. She rejected you before you could even ask her out." Lance groaned and kicked at the dirt.

"That doesn't make me feel any better." Pidge shrugged and went back to whatever she was messing around with on her phone as Hunk continued to chuck rocks out into the desert, seeing how far he could throw each one.

"Well at least you know that she and Keith aren't together." Hunk said. Lance scoffed.

"All she said was that she's not really looking for a boyfriend. That might just mean she's already found a boyfriend, Keith. She's probably going to ask him out soon and I'm going to hate him even more than I do now."

"Why do you hate him?" Pidge asked. "I still don't understand it." Hunk snickered.

"He hasn't told you yet?"

"Hunk! Shut up!" Lance said, crossing his arms and glaring out into the distance at the setting sun.

"Oh come on, it's a good story. Can't I tell her?" Hunk said with a shit eating grin. Lance rolled his eyes and waved at him to go ahead, walking away a couple of paces so he wouldn't have to hear the embarrassing story. "Awesome, okay so when we were ten years old, brand spanking new Cadets, Lance was super excited to talk to well everyone, flirt with all the girls and..." Pidge giggled.

"I love where this is going." Hunk smiled.

"So Keith was a late joiner. He showed up at the Garrison with Shiro with his hair down to his shoulders, definitely not military style. Shiro was actually supposed to take him to get a haircut in a couple of minutes but he wanted Keith to meet all the other Cadets. Lance meanwhile was in the bathroom when they arrived."

"Oh shit." Pidge said with a wide smile.

"Just get on with it." Lance complained from far away.

"So he comes back out. See's this new recruit from behind and his first thought is, _There's another pretty girl I can talk to_ and so," Pidge was already laughing and Lance's cheeks burned red just thinking about what happened next.

Keith had been standing nervously in the middle of the room. He recognized some of the Cadets around him but they weren't exactly friends at their last school so why should he talk to them now? Besides that, James was here and looked pissed off to see him in the Garrison uniform. Keith sighed. He probably wasn't going to make any new friends here, despite the fact that Shiro wanted him too.

"Do you have a Band Aid?" A voice suddenly asked behind him. "Because I just scraped my knee falling for you." Keith blushed red and turned around slowly, violet eyes wide. Behind him stood a taller, hispanic boy with slightly curly hair and freckles across his cheekbones. Keith's heart thumped wildly in his chest but the boys demeanor changed instantly upon seeing his face.

"Oh, you're a boy.. You look kind of like..." He blushed all the way to his ears.

"It's the hair." Keith said a bit self-consciously. "I'm going to get it cut soon." 

"Cool. That's cool." He looked like he wanted to run away but Keith wanted to know his name.

"I'm Keith." He said, sticking out his hand. Lance looked down at it and then back up at him.

"Lance." He shook his hand quickly and started backpedaling away. "I'm gonna go talk to my roommate. See you around." Keith couldn't even get out a reply before Lance ran away.

"Lance was so embarrassed," Hunk said. "That he barely spoke for a week. It was the quietest he's ever been and he's had this grudge against Keith ever since even though Keith did absolutely _nothing_. He didn't make fun of Lance. He didn't tell anyone else and as far as I know, the four of us, now, are the only ones who know what actually happened that first day."

"That is the best fucking story I've ever heard."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Lance said, flopping onto the desert sand, not caring that it would get all over his uniform. "I'm an embarrassing little fuck." That's what bugged Lance about Keith. He never black mailed him about it, never used it as leverage, never brought it up. What was Keith waiting for? Was he waiting for some moment to really damage Lance? A _kick him while he's down_ sort of thing? Lance couldn't figure it out. He also couldn't figure out why looking into Keith's eyes always made his stomach flip. Was he just nervous? Scared? It had to be something like that.... right?


	7. To the Lows and Every High

"Hey, I have to tell you both something." Aurora said, smoke curling out of her mouth as she spoke and off of the joint she was holding in her hand. She handed it back over to Parker who took a drag nodding for her to go ahead. "We're going to be a flight crew together until we graduate and hopefully beyond that so I don't want there to be secrets between us."

"You going to tell us about who your dad is?" Keith asked. Aurora grinned.

"No. I'll leave that secret for later. This one's a little bigger." Aurora paused. "And I'm hoping it doesn't change anything."

"It probably won't." Parker said, passing the joint to Keith who was still a little skeptical about smoking. Aurora wrinkled her nose at him. "As long as you don't say you have a foot fetish, I'll be fine." Aurora snickered and Keith rolled his eyes as he put the joint to his lips.

"Okay, okay I'll just say it." Aurora said, taking a deep breath. The wind blew past them lightly, blowing back her light blue hair as her friends waited. "I'm bisexual. My first kiss was actually with a girl back at the Seattle Garrison when I was fourteen." Parker whistled lowly. Keith's jaw nearly drop.

"Fourteen? I didn't have my first kiss until I was fifteen, right on." He said holding out his hand for a high five. Aurora laughed, relieved they weren't reacting harshly as she gave him his high-five.

"Yeah. I had liked her for a while but I couldn't tell if it was as more than friends or something and I didn't even know kissing girls was an option until I actually kissed her." Keith's hands shook a little. Nobody had ever come out in front of him before. Coming out to Shiro and Adam had been hard enough but Aurora acted like it was no big deal right now. Was she freaking out on the inside like he had? Was her stomach churning something fierce? Did she feel like throwing up?

"And how was it? She kiss you back or punch you in the face." Parker asked with a laugh.

"She kissed me back!" Aurora exclaimed happily. "And we did a little more than kiss actually." Parker let out a whoop.

"Damn Del a Cruz! You get to second base with her?" Aurora shrugged, laughing as she took the joint back from Keith.

"I never understood the 'bases' reference but maybe? If having some of your clothes off counts as second base." Aurora shook her head, taking a hit off the joint.

"Man, I'm getting goosebumps." Parker said. Aurora hit him.

"Shut up you pervert."

"I'm kidding!" Parker said with a laugh as he took the joint from her. Aurora looked over to Keith who hadn't moved much or said anything since she had admitted that she liked girls and boys.

"You okay Keith?" Aurora asked, feeling like she was holding her breath. He looked up at her with big eyes, a bewildered look on his face.

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine." Keith stammered out. "I'm just taking it in. That's honestly not what I thought you would say." Aurora felt her chest tighten with fear. "But I'm glad you told us. I'm happy you trust us with this." Aurora exhaled and smiled gratefully.

"Of course I trust you idiots." Aurora said with a laugh. "You guys are my best friends here and I couldn't ask for a better flight crew to be a part of."

"Oh stop with the mushy. Weed always makes you so emotional Aurora." Parker said, rolling his eyes. 

"Shut up and hug me okay?" Aurora said, standing and holding her arms out wide. Keith laughed and stood up immediately. Parker just continued to shake his head at them. 

"It's getting to you too isn't it Keith." Parker said with a grin. "What the fuck kind of weed did I buy? Emotional Weed? I didn't know they made that kind of a strain." Parker said, taking another long drag.

"Oh don't pretend like you don't want to hug us." Aurora said, wrapping her arms around Keith tightly and patting down his silky hair that kept flying into her face. 

"I really don't."

"Come on Parker, just hug us." Keith said. "You know I'm not the touchy feely type but this is important." Keith felt all warm and fuzzy inside and it was all because of Aurora, because she had the courage to come out. It gave Keith the feeling that he could do it too. Not that he was going to say something right now. He didn't want to upstage Aurora's confession. He could just save it for later. At least he knew now that he had accepting friends like Aurora and Parker. Parker finally stood.

"Alright, alright just don't..." Aurora half let go of Keith and grabbed Parker who nearly dropped the joint in his hand off the roof. The three friends laughed as they hugged one another. 

"Don't what?" Aurora asked. 

"Overdo it." Parker replied with a grin. Aurora stuck her tongue out at him. 

"But you're my boys. I want to show you how much I love you both." Aurora said pulling back to ruffle Keith's hair and punch Parker in the arm since Parker, with his buzzcut currently didn't have a lot of hair. 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Parker said drifting back towards his seat on the ground. Aurora smiled and turned to look out across the desert as Keith sat back down as well. She always loved how the night sky looked out here. It was always so clear. There were so many stars to see. Sometimes it almost felt like she could reach out and grab them. That's why she had joined the Garisson, not just because her dad was a ranking officer, but because she wanted to go beyond this planet, see what else was out there, and hopefully meet other forms of life. 

"So, you never said how Lance took your rejection earlier this week." Parker spoke up after a stretched silence. Keith looked over at Parker surprised. Who was he talking to? Aurora? Did Lance like Aurora? Keith could practically feel his heart shatter. Aurora groaned and sat down on the wall lining the roofs edge so she could face her friends.

"I don't know but I handled it horribly Parker." She said, running one had through her hair with a sigh.

"What happened?" Keith asked in a shaky voice. Aurora sighed and crossed her legs at her ankles, wringing her hands nervously.

"Parker stupidly told me Lance might like me and since I don't like him back, I wanted to talk to him about it." Keith almost sighed in relief, glad that Aurora didn't like Lance back but the thought didn't really make him feel that much better. It only confirmed his suspicion that Lance was as straight as they come.

"And? Get on with it." Parker motioned. "I couldn't see Lance's face from where we were sitting, only yours and you looked so flustered." Aurora blushed a little and Keith wracked his brain, trying to remember if he had seen Parker looking over his shoulder at Aurora and Lance. Why hadn't Keith been told about Lance's supposed crush?

"Because I was flustered. We were eating, talking and I just came right out with the question and at first I thought he had agreed with me that he only liked me as a friend but then he asked what I would say if he liked me more than that." Parker let out a low whistle.

"Shit Cruz, you tore his heart out didn't you." Aurora groaned and dropped her head down onto her knees, long hair falling down almost to the ground.

"I didn't mean to." Came her muffled reply. She sat back up, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks. "But I realized my mistake and then I just embarrassed both of us. I apologized, told him I didn't like him the way he liked me and..." Aurora shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe I should just..." she trailed off.

"Just what?" Parker asked. "Said that you should go on a date, spare his feelings for a day, a week?" Aurora frowned. She wasn't sure. She just couldn't get the image of him staring at her so sadly and longingly out of her head.

"I don't know I just hated seeing the look on his face." Parker pulled out his lighter and relit the burned out joint. After taking a drag, he handed it to her.

"You don't like him Aurora. You shouldn't feel bad about that. Leading him on would be worse." Aurora took a deep breath and nodded.

"Yeah I know. I just wish I had come up with a better excuse than saying 'I'm not looking for a boyfriend right now'. Like how lame is that?" Aurora asked, putting the joint to her lips as she shook her head.

"It is pretty lame." Keith replied. Parker and Aurora laughed.

"Thanks Keith." He shrugged.

"Don't mention if."


	8. Milkshakes

"Just the two of us? You didn't invite the others?" Keith asked, fixing the collar of his leather jacket as he watched Aurora braid back the rest of her light blue hair as they walked down the street together.

"Yeah it's just the two of us today. You are going to be the sole outlet of all my affection my boy." Aurora said with a wink.

"Oh stop flirting with me." Keith said, shoving her shoulder and blushing a little.

"I have to, how else are you going to get used to it? You practically had a meltdown when Carter started to flirt with you." Aurora said with a laugh. Keith shook his head.

"I didn't _practically_ have a meltdown. I _did_ have a meltdown. She tried to kiss me! I didn't even know she was flirting. I didn't even know she thought _I_ was flirting." Keith felt mortified just thinking about it. He's known Jillian Carter since they were eight. They had gone to the same elementary school together and both just happened to get into the Garrison as well. Keith had had her in several classes before, done a project with her once so he knew her pretty well and thought she pretty cool but that was about it. He didn't know she had been harboring a secret crush on him all these years.

"Well I'm preparing you for next time Keith so you know when someone is flirting with you and we're going to work on your ' _I'm not really into you_ ' speech so you don't completely crush the next girl who tries to kiss you." Keith groaned. After realizing that Jillian was going in for a kiss, he had jumped away from her like she had the plague, startling her.

_"What's wrong Keith?" She asked, a bewildered look on her face._

_"Did you just try to kiss me?" Keith asked in a voice that sounded way harsher than his own. Jillian started stammering out a reply but Keith had interrupted her. "You can't just try to kiss people."_

_"I.. I'm sorry Keith I just I really like you and I thought you liked me too and.."_

_"Well I don't." Keith had wanted to take the words back immediately as he watched her face fall. She looked crushed, completely shattered. "I'm sorry Jillian but I don't." And then Keith walked away but as he did he could hear her begin to cry._

"There isn't going to be a next time." Keith grumbled, kicking at a rock on the ground. "Name five girls that like me." Aurora gave him a funny look.

"Keith, I could name ten, probably more." Keith's eyes widened.

"You're lying."

"I'm not. People love your whole brooding, bad boy, shtick. It's like catnip for teenage girls." Keith arched an eyebrow at her. "Luckily I'm allergic to catnip." Keith laughed. "Which is why I have to prepare you for the next time someone flirts with you, tries to ask you out, etc. And since you are obviously opposed to this idea of dating people, of flirting and all intimate relationships in general, I'm going to prepare you for that too." Keith paused in the middle of the sidewalk.

"This is a trap." Aurora rolled her eyes and walked back to Keith so she could grab his hand.

"Don't be stupid. This isn't a trap. This is a _pretend_ date so you can get used to the idea of someone liking you and flirting with you." Keith didn't budge as she tugged on his arm.

"This is definitely a trap."

"Come on Keith are you going to make me go crying to Parker and tell him what a bad date you are? How untrainable and unteachable? How out of touch you are with your feelings and the feelings of others? How..."

"Okay shut up for like two seconds please." Keith said. Aurora laughed but shut up. It wasn't that Keith was opposed to the idea of dating people or flirting with them. It's just that... The people he did want to date were guys. Lance for example or maybe Kinkade. Mainly just Lance though. But he hadn't come out to anyone yet, Keith wasn't Lance's type and he was petrified about what everyone at the Garisson would think of him. Aurora was kind of right though. He did need a lesson on date etiquette and flirting and how to handle letting people down. And since Aurora had apparently already planned everything out... "We're not going to kiss right." Aurora wrinkled her nose.

"Ew, gross. If I kissed you it would be like kissing a brother."

"Thank god." Keith said with a sigh. Aurora shoved him.

"Oh shut up." She said as he laughed and they continued down the street. "You're okay with me teaching you how to behave like a normal boy then right?" Keith rolled his eyes.

"I guess. I don't know why you want to do this though. I might be a lost cause."

"You're not a lost cause." Aurora said, shaking her head at him. "We just have to find someone you're interested in, train you to flirt and then you're good to go."

"I didn't think flirting was a learned trait."

"Well it is so shut up and listen to Lesson One." Keith motioned for her to go ahead. "Lesson One, A girl is always right, even when she's wrong she's right."

"You're right." Aurora laughed.

* * *

Lance's palms we're sweaty, his heart was beating rapidly and he didn't know why. Maybe it was because Aurora was laughing at what Keith had said. Maybe it was because Keith was smiling wider than he had ever seen before. Maybe it was because... They were sharing a milkshake. "Hey, Earth to Lance." Hunk said, snapping his fingers in front of his face.

"Huh? What?" Lance asked, finally zoning back into the conversation his friends were having.

"Who were you staring at?" Pidge asked, turning all the way around in the booth to look behind her. Lance reaches across the entire table and grabs her arm, pulling her back down into her seat as Pidge laughs. "What? Who is over there?" Hunk looks over the barrier of the booth with ease because of his height and grins madly when he realizes who Lance was staring at.

"Aurora's over there."

"Oooo." Pidge says, trying to be as loud as possible. Lance shushes her jut as loudly and would've clamped his hand over her mouth if he could have reached her.

"Shut up both of you." He hissed, letting go of Pidge's arm as she laughed hysterically.

"And she's with Keith so Lance must be _super_ jealous right now." Hunk said in a teasing tone, nudging Lance.

"Shut up, I am not." Lance grumbled, though his eyes slid back towards their table and his heart sank a little lower.

* * *

"What if I don't want to share something with her on a date?" Keith asked.

"Well then you're a horrible dreadful person and..."

"But you drank the entire milkshake. I barely had any. Do all girls do that?" Keith demanded. Aurora hit his arm.

"You're supposed to let the girl eat everything of yours, especially if you're "sharing" something. It's common courtesy." Keith rolled his eyes.

"See this is why I don't date. I would starve." Aurora laughed. "A girl would eat everything of mine and I'll just wither and die." Aurora continued to laugh, holding her sides. She hadn't been able to stop laughing this entire "date" she couldn't understand why Keith didn't open up more like this with other people. He was an amazing guy. Any girl would be lucky to date him. But Aurora knew there was an unspoken topic about family. The three of them avoided it like the plague. Aurora didn't even like mentioning her own father because she thought Keith might get sad. Everyone knows what happened to Keith's parents. She just hadn't talked to him about it yet.

Something hit the back of Aurora's neck and she turned around in her seat to spy a familiar head of hair. Actually, three familiar heads of hair. Katie who looked terribly suspicious as she whistled a tune, a bare straw in her hand, sat next to Hunk, and Lance was across from them. Aurora looked at the straw wrapper in her hand and grinned.

"Look, it's our friends." Keith looked over Aurora's head and frowned a little.

"They're mainly your friends and Parkers I guess, not mine." Keith said in a low voice, looking terribly uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"What are you talking about. We hang out with them. They like you. We're all friends." Keith shook his head.

"Lance doesn't like me. He always seems so... Hostile when you're not around." Aurora frowned.

"Maybe you're not reading it correctly." She whispered, turning to look back at Pidge, Hunk and Lance again. They were all whispering too. Hunk waved at them and Aurora waved back.

"I'm going to go talk to them and you and Lance need to become friends." Keith sighed but didn't agree with Aurora. With determination, she stood up.

"Hey guys! I didn't know you were in here." Aurora said happily.

"Yeah, been here about an hour." Hunk said with a smile as she came to stand in front of them.

"I think we've been here about three." Aurora said, thinking on it a minute as she glanced over at Keith. "I'm teaching Keith how to flirt and about what to say on a date. He's dreadful at it." Lance perked up a little. Is that why they had been sharing a milkshake? That's a classic date move Lance has used in the past.

"Wait why are you teaching him something like that?" Pidge asked. Aurora leaned in and started to whisper.

"Truth be told, Keith accidentally broke a girls heart earlier this week. He didn't know she was flirting. She tried to kiss him and Keith reacted... Harshly."

"Yikes." Hunk said. Aurora nodded.

"Don't go spreading lies about me." Keith complained from the booths, obviously having heard what Aurora said. They all laughed.

"Why don't you guys come and join us. Keith and I are going to the park next where we're going to talk about hand holding and small talk and how to see the signs when a girl wants to kiss you." Lance wrinkled his nose.

"Are you actually going to kiss him?" He asked. Keith pretended to barf from his seat at their table and Aurora grabbed a napkin, balled it up and threw it at him.

"No. He's like an annoying brother. Kissing him would be gross."

"You're gross." Aurora flipped Keith off.

"So, want to see him fail at flirting and get all worked up about how to make a girl swoon?" Pidge, Hunk and Lance laughed.

"I don't know, how do you feel about it?" Pidge said, looking pointedly at Lance. Lance said nothing, just shrugged. Aurora sighed.

"Is Keith right? Do you two not like each other or something?" Aurora asked. Lance tried not to blush.

"I don't know. Is that what he said?" Lance asked. Aurora pursed her lips.

"Why don't you like each other?" She asked. Lance shrugged and Pidge and Hunk tried not to laugh.

"It's just a dumb rivalry we've had since we were Cadets. He's always tried to beat me at everything. Simulators, drills, spelling tests, you name it." Lance wasn't wrong but he wasn't necessarily right either. The rivalry was more... One sided. It was something Lance had concocted in his mind that Keith had no idea about. In Keith's eyes, all these years, he had been trying to impress Lance by being the best at everything. He wasn't aware of the fact that he was hurting Lance's ego by doing so.

"Well you two need to be friends. He's my pilot and I really like you all and I think we should all be friends." Aurora commanded.

"We'll get him to see the error of his ways." Pidge said with a smile.

"And as much as I would love to watch Keith make a fool of himself.." Hunk said as a waitress came to stand next to Aurora with their check. "I think we should head back to the Garrison and finish our homework." Aurora rolled her eyes.

"It's Friday. Do homework later." She said.

"Yeah but if I don't start helping Lance now, he won't understand it come Monday morning." Pidge said. Lance groaned.

"Pidge! Don't tell her that!" Aurora laughed. "Alright well we'll see you soon then." Keith appeared at her side as the waitress walked away.

"Ready to go? I already paid for our food." Aurora gasped.

"See! You are understanding this! You skipped right to Lesson Fifteen. I'm so proud." Keith blushed a little, fiddling with the zipper for his jacket. Lance's eyes widened a little. He had never seen Keith look embarrassed before. He always looked so tough and rigid and if Aurora wanted the two of them to be friends, then maybe... "Well anyways, we'll see you guys later." Aurora tugged on Keith's arm as she waved goodbye.

"See ya." Keith said with half of a grin and a slight wave. Lance locked eyes with him and Keith let his gaze linger, drinking in the sight of Lance in the dim lighting. His hair was curling slightly around his ears. His blue eyes seemed to sparkle under the light of the lamp and Keith could just barely see the dimple on his right cheek that he always wanted to kiss and then Keith turned around and followed Aurora outside. Lance's heart beat wildly in his chest. Why had Keith looked at him like that?


	9. In This Moment I Could Die

"Hunk! You're not going to throw up! This is a simulation."

"I know but I can't help myself. It's that beef stew we had for lunch." Lance rolled his eyes and went back to focusing on the controls. Hunk was turning green but he didn't have time to sympathize with his motion sick friend. They had a fake mission to complete and if they failed this, Iverson would put them on kitchen duty for a month, not to mention the fact that the whole class was currently watching them on the monitors outside. "Pidge hail that craft if you can please." Lance begged. He needed one thing to go right, just one thing to show everyone that he was worthy of pilot class.

"On it Captain." Pidge said, reaching for the communication system but, as usual, she was too small to ride this ride and her arms couldn't reach the controller way up high. Knowing it was against protocol, she ground her teeth and unbuckled her seatbelt. "Craft 475 this is Flight Crew 219. We have received your distress signal and we are coming to rescue you." Artificial cheers could be heard on the other end.

"Lance watch out!" Hunk shouted, pointing at the window

"I know." Lance shouted back, pulling up hard on the wheel, narrowly missing the large rock formation. As he did though, the craft titled and Pidge was sent flying to the back of the simulator with a loud **_Bang_**. "Pidge!" Lance exclaimed, immediately abandoning the controls to see if she was okay. "Are you alright?" He asked as he watched her rub the back of her head. She had a pained look on her face and her long hair was askew but she looked fine otherwise.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"Mission failed." A booming automated voice called out. Lance grimaced. The screen was flashing red with a collision warning message. The bay door slid open with a click and Iverson came into view.

"Fall into line Cadets!" He shouted. Hunk, hanging his head a little, stood and followed Lance and Pidge out who was still massaging the back of her neck. "Would anyone like to tell me what they did wrong?" Iverson demanded of the rest of their classmates.

"The engineer nearly threw up." Wells threw out.

"The technician unbuckled her seatbelt." Rizavi said.

"The pilot abandoned the controls." Griffin said, loving the tortured expression on Lance's face. Aurora grimaced and Keith almost felt like turning around to punch James in the face. There was no doubt in his mind that that punk ass bitch was smirking up a storm right now.

"All valid answers." Iverson says. "But the biggest mistake of the day was letting these three numskulls go into the simulator first." A slight snicker drifted through the crowd. "So now, I'm going to call the best team to the front to show us how it's done." Lance's shoulders fell and Pidge and Hunk sighed. "Cruz, Kogane, and Jenkins, fall in line." Iverson shouts. Aurora glances toward Keith and Parker as they head towards the simulator. Aurora smiles sympathetically at the Trio as does Keith and Parker. Parker actually pats Hunk's shoulder as they pass. The door for the simulator opens and shuts behind them.

Lance hated watching Keith do better than him. Well, he kind of hated watching everyone pilot better than him. It just wasn't fair. He shouldn't get docked points for abandoning the controls. Pidge was hurt. He was trying to make sure she was okay. This was just a stupid simulation anyways. It's not like he'd abandon the controls in a real mission. He'd at least switch on the autopilot first.

Keith, Aurora and Parker came out of the mission with smiles on their faces, high-fiving one another over a job well done. Lance just sighed. Typical. Of Course Keith was better at him. Why did Lance even try anymore? Nearly every other team finished the simulation successfully and even if they did fail, nobody got as bad a grade as Hunk, Pidge and Lance. Disgusted with himself and brooding over his failed grade, Lance went to the locker room to change out of his suit and back into his uniform, the rest of the boys following suit.

"Hey uhh.. Are You okay?" A voice asked as Lance unzipped his jumpsuit and kicked off his shoes. Lance was only wearing a black tank top and shorts now and Keith immediately regretted coming over to talk to him like Aurora suggested. He couldn't stop staring at Lance's shoulders. He didn't even know he could find shoulders attractive but somehow Lance's were.

"I'm fine." Lance grumbled, wishing that anyone else in the world had come to talk to him. Where was Hunk when Lance needed him?

"Don't listen to Iverson. Your score wasn't that bad." Lance glared up at Keith as he pulled his uniform out of his locker. "I thought it was nice that you went to check on Pidge. She could've gotten really hurt getting thrown back like that."

"Yeah well everyone was right. She shouldn't have unbuckled. I shouldn't have abandoned the controls. It's all my fault. I suck at being a leader and a pilot apparently. They'll probably bump me back down to cargo class now." Keith shook his head no vigorously.

"No they won't. You're a good pilot Lance and a good leader. It's just some stupid simulation that you threw so you could check on Katie. That's what good leaders do _and_ good friends." Lance paused in pulling on his jacket. Why was Keith being so nice to him? Had Aurora put him up to this?

"Whatever man." Lance murmured as he fixed the height of his pants and began to put on his belt. "Shouldn't you change. You'll be late." Keith nodded, still turning his helmet around and around in his hands nervously.

"I could... Help you if you want. We have all those smaller simulation drills I could run with you in our free time." Keith offered and while he was being completely genuine, hoping Lance would take up his offer so they could spend more time together, Lance felt stung. Like Keith was almost making fun of him for sucking so badly.

"No thanks Keith. I don't need help. Especially not from you." Keith grimaced and Lance felt bad almost immediately but it's not like he could take back what he said. Keith knew talking to Lance was a bad idea. Aurora hadn't told him to offer to help him, that had been all Keith and he was stupid enough to think that Lance might accept his offer.

"Why don't you like me Lance. I don't understand. What did I do?" Keith asked. Lance looked at himself in the small mirror in his locker, fixing his messy, helmet hair. He caught a glimpse of Keith's betrayed, hurt expression behind him and nearly cringed. How did Keith manage to look like a kicked puppy and yet, kind of mean and cold at the same time?

"Nothing." Lance said, closing his locker.

"Then why don't you like me." Lance rolled his eyes. He didn't have the time for this right now or the patience.

"Just never mind Keith. Go change before Iverson yells at you too." Lance said, brushing past Keith. Keith ground his teeth. Nearly everyone was already filing out of the locker room and Keith was still standing in his mock spacesuit. Heading to his locker, Keith kicked it open since the lock was always faulty and nearly threw his helmet inside. Maybe he should just give up on his stupid crush. Maybe Lance wasn't worth his time. Maybe he would never get to the bottom of why Lance hated him. But then Keith thought of his bright, blue eyes and smile and he unclenched his fists.

Damit. Having a crush sucked.

* * *

Lance sat in his last class of the day and felt like an asshole. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about how shitty he had been to Keith earlier. As he left the locker room, Lance had heard Keith kick his locker and nearly break his helmet in two. Lance actually wondered if maybe Keith had broken it. Lance didn't know why he felt bad. He had never felt like this before when he had dismissed Keith. Maybe it was because it seemed like Keith was actually trying to be nice. Lance looked back at Keith now who looked as bored as Lance felt. Keith's gaze shifted towards Lance who quickly looked away and blushed, though he wasn't sure why. Maybe he should apologize, take Keith up on his offer. It wasn't a bad idea really and Lance did kind of want to learn that trick Keith had used in the simulation to avoid the asteroid belt.

As the bell rang and class finished, Lance sighed and gathered his books, prepared to swallow his pride and talk to Keith. Weirdly, it was like Keith knew Lance wanted to talk to him because he was slow to pack up as well and the two of them ended up walking out of the room together. "Hey man I'm sorry for being... Snappy earlier. I wasn't having a good day."

"I know. I shouldn't have pushed you." Keith admitted, thrilled that Lance had instigated the conversation with him.

"Maybe." Lance was quiet. "I would like to take you up on your offer though. If you're still willing that is." Lance finally said, the sentence rushing out of him in one breath so he wouldn't loose his nerve to say it. Keith looked at him bewildered, surprised at the turn of events. Keith had expected a simple apology, nothing more.

"Yeah I mean... If you'll be able to stand being around me for more than twenty minutes." Lance chuckled.

"We were just in the same room for over an hour." Keith rolled his eyes.

"Yeah but we weren't exactly interacting were we?" Keith asked.

"Well let's see then Kogane. Maybe you really are as annoying as I feared and I'll regret this decision entirely."

"Maybe." Keith mused. "Want to head to the training area now?" Lance shrugged.

"I have time to kill." Keith smiled and nearly grabbed Lance's hand.

"Let's go then."

* * *

Pidge and Hunk walked through the hallways slowly, looking for Aurora who said she was going to meet them on their way to the pilot training deck. They weren't exactly sure why because Aurora had been vague about that.

_Aurora_   
_Just meet me there!_ _Y_ _ou two are going to love this!_

Pidge and Hunk weren't sure what she meant by that but they were heading back upstairs anyways. As they were coming down the flight of stairs Aurora appeared, eating a bag of crappy Garrison labeled popcorn that the gift shop sometimes sell for tourists. "Don't judge my choices." Aurora said as Hunk and Pidge eyed the bag skeptically. "It's not that bad once you get past the cardboard taste." Pidge snickered.

"What are we here for? None of us are pilot class." Hunk said.

"I know but we both know people who are." Aurora said with a grin. "People who are currently hanging out with one another in this very room." Dramatically, Aurora opened the door and the sound of Keith and Lance laughing immediately reached their ears.

"You're cheating Keith!" Lance said as he tried to concentrate on the controls in front of him.

"Or maybe you just suck that much." Keith said as his craft zoomed past Lance, causing him to break formation.

"You know that this machine has a crummy steering system Kogane!" Lance shouted back as he picked up speed, chasing Keith around on the screen. The simulator was supposed to help them learn drills but the two of them had long since passed that. They were now flying freely, doing whatever the hell they wanted despite the error messages flying across the screen.

"What happened?" Aurora whispered to Pidge and Hunk. "Am I dreaming? Is this even real?" Hunk was having a hard time believing it to. Not five hours ago, Keith and Lance had been fighting, again, and as far as Hunk knew, Lance still resented Keith for some dumb reason.

"Looks pretty real to me." Pidge said. Keith could hear the murmured voices behind him and turned around in his seat, startled. Everybody had left hours ago. Who had walked in on them? Keith spotted Aurora who was munching on popcorn. She waved when he caught her eye.

"Woohoo!" Lance exclaimed. "I beat you." Keith looked back at the screens and saw that Lance had indeed beaten him by a point and a half. Lance had been focusing more on the drills but Keith would usually get farther than Lance who consistently couldn't get past level five. "What's got you all distracted?" Lance asked, turning around in his seat. His smile faded a little when he saw Pidge, Hunk and Aurora standing not twenty feet from them. "Oh.. Hey guys." Lance said, waving a little.

"Hi." Aurora said, walking forward. "What's up? Are you two actually becoming friends or something?" Lance and Keith exchanged a look.

"I uhhh.. Offered to help Lance with some flying techniques after what happened in the simulation." Keith said.

"Looked like you two were goofing off to me." Pidge remarked.

"Well doing drills gets boring." Lance said. "How did you find us in here?"

"Well I was looking for Keith and usually when I can't reach him on his phone, he's in here trying to beat his own high score and lo and behold when I walk in here, I find the two of you so I texted Hunk and Pidge, grabbed some popcorn and decided to watch the show. Unfortunately, Keith saw us." Lance laughed a bit nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well I don't know what you think is so entertaining about us but..." Lance paused. "Whatever anyways, this was fun Keith." Lance said, turning to him and holding out his hand. Keith looked at it bewildered before reaching back out to him.

"Yeah it was." Keith said as they shook hands.

"We should do it again some time." Keith's heart skipped a beat.

"Yeah uhh..."

"Aww!!! My boys are getting along now!" Aurora exclaimed happily before Keith could reply. Excitedly, she hugged Keith and then Lance. Lance hugged her back, smiling broadly and blushing. "No more bad blood between you two then?" Aurora asked. Lance shrugged.

"I.. I guess not." Keith said.

"Oh yay! We can hang out together a lot more then! I'm going to start making plans now. Come on Keith." Aurora said, motioning for Keith to follow her as she whipped out her phone and handed him the bag of popcorn.

"Oh... Okay. See you all later then I guess." Keith said, waving goodbye to Pidge, Hunk and Lance.

"Bye guys!" Aurora called out, dialing Parker's number on her phone. The Trio watched them leave and Hunk elbowed Lance.

"So, you're best buds now?"

"No." Lance said indignantly, not quite sure how he felt about Keith anymore. They had just spent the last four hours together running drills and Lance didn't have as horrible as a time as he thought he might. "You'll always be my best friend Hunk." And as Lance watched Keith and Aurora leave, an idea began to form in his mind.


	10. Friends

"Alright, _Operation Make Aurora Like Me_ is a go." Lance said, flopping down onto the ground where Pidge and Hunk already sat. Hunk gave him a funny look as he pushed down the sleeves of his gray sweatshirt.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm going to make Aurora fall in love with me by becoming best friends with Keith." Pidge snorted.

"I'm sorry Lance but what? How is becoming friends with Keith going to make Aurora like you?"

"Well... She's always saying that she wishes we were better friends right?" Hunk and Pidge nodded. "So I just have to play nice, get on Keith's good side. Get on Aurora's better side. Get closer to her, show her what a great guy I am and then ask her out again and see what happens." Pidge looked at him skeptically.

"Ummm I'm pretty sure Aurora already thinks you're a great guy Lance. She just doesn't want to date you." Pidge said, tapping away at her computer after reading the message from her brother on Kerberos.

"Yeah well maybe I can change her mind. I really like her guys. She's funny and nice and gorgeous... Tell me this is a good plan, be honest." Lance said, looking at his friends pleadingly. Pidge and Hunk shared a look. She was currently wearing a large leather jacket that could have been her brothers, over her pajama pants and shirt. She had slipped off her sandals and was sitting cross legged on the roof, her long hair flowing over her shoulders and back. Hunk had on gray everything. Gray shirt, gray sweater, gray pants but the sandals he was wearing were brown. When they looked back at Lance they both said,

"This is a horrible plan." Lance groaned and flopped out completely onto the ground.

"Don't do that." Hunk said, nudging his friends shoulder. "This roof isn't that clean."

"I don't care." Lance moaned. "I just want to be with Aurora is that too much to ask?" He said. Hunk sighed.

"Buddy it really doesn't sound like a solid plan but if it's what you want to do, try it out or whatever. Just don't be an ass to Keith afterwards if by some miracle Aurora does go for you." Lance picked himself up off the ground and smiled.

"Wouldn't dream of it. I'll text him tomorrow, see if he wants to hang out." Pidge looked up from her computer, frowning a little at Lance.

"You have his number?"

"Oh, no I don't. I'll ask Aurora though." Lance said with a shrug. "What're you saying to your brother anyways? Nothing that cool or exciting is happening down here." Pidge shrugged.

"Yeah I know. I'm just telling him about my weird friends and how one of them is trying to trick a girl into liking him." Hunk snickered.

"Hey!" Lance whined as they both began to laugh. "It's not funny!" Lance huffed as his friends continued to laugh before switching the subject to what Matt, Shiro and her father were currently doing up in space. Lance barely listened though as he tried to lay out his plan in his head. Could he really get closer to Aurora by getting closer to Keith? She had said she felt like Keith was a brother to her. So maybe he could. Maybe if he got on Keith's good side he could put in a good word for her and Aurora would have some kind of change of heart. Lance sighed. It was kind of a crazy plan but maybe, just maybe, it would work. 

* * *

_Lance_   
_Hey dude, wanna hang out?_

**My Rival**   
**Umm... And do what?**

_Lance_   
_I don't know. What do you usually do for fun?_

**My Rival**   
**....**   
**Go to the training room.**

_Lance_   
_You're joking._

**My Rival**   
**I'm really not. I was going to head over there in a couple minutes.**

_Lance_   
_Jesus Keith. I need to fix you're definition of "fun"_

**My Rival**   
**Okay what do you propose?**

Lance wasn't sure exactly. He was kind of hoping Keith would have a better suggestion than flight training. What did him and Hunk do together for fun? Play video games? Watch stupid youtube videos?

_Lance_   
_Not sure. Just come to my room._

**My Rival**   
**I don't know where your room is**

Keith lied. He knew exactly where Lance's room was but he couldn't exactly tell Lance that. He would think Keith was stalking him or something. Which he wasn't. He just happened to remember where Lance and Hunks' dorm room was. It was, after all, on the same floor as his.

_Lance_   
_24C_   
_Now hurry up. I'm bored._

Keith picked himself up off his bed and glanced over at Harlow who was bent over at his desk, typing out some complicated looking codes. Harlow was a technician, like Pidge and Aurora but you would never guess it from his massive size. Harlow had broad shoulders, muscled arms and legs and was around six feet tall. He towered over Keith and kind of intimidated him sometimes but Harlow was a big softie at the core of it and Keith found that out really quickly when he came into their room once and he was watching videos of puppies playing with toys.

Running one hand through his hair, Keith tugged on his shoes and stood up, straightening out his shirt and jeans self consciously Harlow looked up from his laptop as Keith began to pull on his leather jacket that had been hanging on the hook on the door. "Headed out?"

"Yeah, just to meet a friend." Harlow smirked.

"Didn't know you had friends outside of Captain Shirogane." Keith flipped him off and Harlow just chuckled. "Who is it?"

"Lance McClain." Harlow turned around in his seat to look at Keith as he patted his pockets, checking to make sure he had his phone and his wallet with his Garrison ID in it.

"McClain. I thought you two hated each other?" Keith shrugged.

"I don't know. I'm friends with Aurora now and Aurora is friends with him and she's been telling us to be friends or whatever. He apparently got my number from her last night. Completely surprised Keith too when he saw Lance's text and the one he sent him just now." Harlow nodded his head.

"Wow. Is she going to settle your beef between Griffin as well?" Keith rolled his eyes.

"I doubt it. Even Aurora can't stand him." Harlow laughed.

"Alright Keith see you later then."

"Bye Russel." Keith said, waving slightly as he headed out the door and down the hallway. Lance's room was virtually just around the corner from his own so it didn't take long at all for Keith to show up at his door. When he knocked on the panel Keith heard some scuffling behind the door before it slid open, revealing Lance. He was wearing a plain, dark green shirt and black jeans and for some reason a hat on his head.

"Hey, you got here fast." Keith shrugged.

"I'm just down the hall. 10C." Keith said, nodding down the end of the hallway.

"Huh. I didn't know that." Keith said nothing as Lance stepped aside and allowed him to come in. Lance and Hunks room looked a lot more... Comfortable than Keith and Russel's. The two of them didn't have posters or photos on the walls or any clothes strewn about the floor or unopened candy packages lying on their desks. Keith's room was neat and tidy, just how both he and Russel liked it. Lance's room on the other hand was the complete opposite.

"Wow." Keith said, unable to help himself.

"Yeah. Hunk and I usually clean before inspection but otherwise, it usually looks like this." Lance said with a shrug, beginning to pick up his uniform and other clothes off the floor before shoving them haphazardly into his closet.

"Shiro would kill me if my room looked like this."

"Well good thing Shiro is your friend and not mine. I don't want to die over a messy room." Keith smiled as Lance sat down on his half made bed. "So, what do you want to do?" Keith shrugged.

"Why do you want to hang out with me anyways. I thought you didn't like me." Keith said lightly, staring at his scuffed up sneakers. Lance felt a twinge of guilt looking at Keith. He hadn't realized that Keith might be upset that someone didn't like him, especially since Lance seemingly liked everyone.

"Well Aurora said we should be friends right? She seems to think we'd be best buds or something." Keith shrugged. Lance pursed his lips. Maybe this was a bad idea. What if he found out Keith liked country music or had some sort of weird obsession with mothman? Would Lance really want to be friends with a guy like that? "Well how about we just play video games." Lance said, moving to small TV in the corner and turning on the game system. "It's what Hunk and I always do. Keith watched Lance pull out the controllers and swallowed hard. Having not grown up playing video games or owning anything even slightly resembling a video game, made Keith a little uneasy that his first time playing one would be with Lance. What if Lance made fun of him for sucking? Keith would be so embarrassed he would probably leave.

"Um yeah, okay." Keith found himself saying, despite his reservations. Lance handed him a controller and Keith held it skeptically.

"Ever played this one before." Lance asked holding up a case with some sort of space battle on the cover.

"Um no." Keith said, since it was the truth.

"Alright I'll start a new game and we can go over the basics." Lance said, popping open the case and taking out the disk. "This ones my favorite but Hunk thinks it's kind of boring."

"Why?"

"I don't know. He thinks it isn't realistic. I just don't think he likes the idea of aliens coming and invading earth." Lance said, moving to sit cross legged on the floor. Keith followed suit.

"Well does anyone really want that to happen?" Lance laughed.

"I don't know. Maybe. We joined the Garrison to go beyond our solar system. Don't you think that if we want to do that then we also want to meet aliens? Other forms of life?" Keith hadn't really thought of that before. To be honest, he had joined the Garrison for structure. And because he was the best fighter pilot around but that's a different story.

"You have a point."

"Thank you!" Lance exclaimed as the game started up. "Hunk thinks I'm crazy." Keith smiled and Lance started the game. It was pretty simple once you got the basics down. Flying ships was easy enough, and Keith was able to quickly learn all the attack moves, it was just the defense ones he was having a tough time with. If Shiro was here, he would probably tell Keith it's because Keith is more of a fighter, not a defender.

Together, the two of them quickly passed through level one, two and half of three. The whole time they talked about school, pilot class, what teachers they hated, who they loved, who they were afraid of. Lance also had a lot of gossip on the students, people Keith barely recognized by name. Apparently Crowe was super into Lexington but Lexington has a giant crush on Bradly and Bradly is actually madly in love with Prince. "I would've never pegged Bradly as gay or bisexual or whatever she identifies as." Lance admitted. "But I guess you can never really tell just by looking at a person right?" Lance asked, looking at Keith who felt like he was staring straight into his soul, sensing the rainbow colored flag his inner self was waving around furiously.

"No, I guess you can't." Keith managed to say.

"Like I had no idea Aurora was bisexual either until she mentioned it last week." Lance said. Keith stared at him with surprise.

"Oh she told you too." Lance nodded.

"It kind of came out of the blue too. She mentioned how she thought Prince was cute actually and since there's only one person with the last name Prince at this school and they just happened to be a girl, I asked her about it and she told me." Lance shrugged. "I don't think I would ever be as brave as her to admit something just right off the bat like that."

"Me either." Keith admitted. "She told Parker and I not too long ago too and I was scared for her. As soon as she said it I kind of felt my heart stop. I've never had someone come out to me before."

"Not even Shiro?" Keith shook his head.

"Shiro didn't really say anything. I just saw Adam all the time and something inside of my head just clicked and I knew they were dating. People shouldn't really have to come out you know? Like you didn't come out as straight to your family did you?" Lance started to laugh. He laughed so hard he had to pause the game had Keith laughed with him. A minute or so later, Hunk walked into the room and saw the two of them busting up.

"So, I guess you two are friends now finally." He said, heading towards his desk, a pile of books in his arms. Keith and Lance exchanged a look and a smile.

"Yeah, I guess we are." Lance said. Keith felt his heart soar.


	11. Never Felt Like This Before

A note landed on Lance's desk when he was half asleep. The landing of the paper startled him enough to get him to sit up and when Lance glanced over at Keith, he was snickering. Lance stuck his tongue out at him and pulled open the folded note, blinking his eyes rapidly so his vision wouldn't be so blurred. He was incredibly tired at the moment, having stayed up half the night to finish the homework he had for this very class. Not that it did him much good. Lance wasn't even sure if he had done any of it right and since it was so late at night, Keith hadn't been up to come over and check his work.

**How's it going sleeping beauty?**

_Fuck off Keith I'm tired._

**I told you to do your work on Friday. It's not my fault you waited until up Sunday to start it.**

_Yeah well I had better things to do._

**Texting Riley and playing video games does not count as better things to do.**

Lance flipped Keith off before hitting the note back to him with his reply. It had been a week since Lance had put _Operation Make Aurora Like Me_ into action and so far, so good. Lance was amazed at how well Keith and him got along. Sure they fought every now and then, usually over something stupid like who the best band in the world was (Keith was adamant it was The Who but Lance had gone with Led Zepplin) and who would get the highest score in the drill simulation they usually did together after classes were all finished but other than that, everything was going according to plan.

On Wednesday, everyone had hung out in the common room, one of the only areas in this damn base where girls and boys can interact with one another, and talked about upcoming projects, books, tv shows, movies, etc. Lance had sat next to Aurora and Keith on the sofa the entire time. Lance felt giddy every time Aurora's hand accidentally brushed against his or every time she hit her shoulder against his own playfully. It made his stomach do flips just looking at her next to him and Lance couldn't wait for them to all hang out again later today at the arcade in town. It was one of the only fun places actually around the Garrison.

**Yeah, yeah Lance. Just pay attention to the lesson.**

_You pay attention Kogane. You're the one who started passing notes._

Keith grinned, folded up the note and shoved it into he pocket of his uniform before picking back up his pencil and tapping it against his chin lightly. The past week had been almost a dream. Lance seemed more keen about getting to know him and on Wednesday, they had sat next to each other, shoulder to shoulder for five full hours and Lance hadn't been completely disgusted or mad in the slightest. Whenever Lance would make a dumb joke, sometimes he would elbow Keith and wiggle his eyebrows at him and occasionally, Lance draped his arm on the back of the couch. It wasn't exactly like he had been trying to put his arm around Keith's shoulders but at least Keith could imagine that that's what he had been trying to subtly do.

The only thing that worried Keith though was that he was getting too invested in Lance, too wrapped up in the fantasy he was creating where Lance was flirting with him. It was a world where the two of them would eventually end up together but Keith knew that would never happen. Lance was straight. As far as Keith could tell that is. And even if he wasn't, Keith doubted he would be Lance's type. He wasn't as good looking as Shiro or even half of the other students here at the Garrison. Keith sighed to himself. He knew he should just give up on the idea of him and Lance together but as Keith glanced over at him now, eyeing the freckles dotting Lance's cheeks and his messy brown hair Keith knew that he was just fooling himself. How could he get over a boy like that?

* * *

As soon as they enter the arcade, they're hit with the smell of popcorn, pizza and rubber. Every machine is lit brightly and beeping at them and kids and other Garisson students are walking or running around, trying to figure out what to play next. Lance smiles. He's always loved arcades. He always went to one back home with his older siblings. There was a Space ranger game in that arcade that he loved so much it made him want to join the Garrison and here Lance was today, a fighter pilot for the Tucson Garrison.

"It smells like wet dog in here." Pidge said, wrinkling her nose. "Why did Aurora want to come here?" Lance shrugged.

"Not sure but it's fine Pidge. You get used to the smell eventually." Pidge made a face.

"I don't want to." She said as the three friends wandered farther into the room.

"Lance!" Someone shouts, causing him to turn around to look for the source of the voice. It's Aurora. She's standing on one of those dance games, waving exaggeratedly at him. Keith and Parker are near her, standing on the swirling, brightly colored carpet as Aurora jumps up and down on the dancepad.

"Your crush is calling." Pidge teases, nudging him.

"Shut up." Lance murmurs as the three of them walk over.

"Hey guys. Ready for some fun?" Aurora asked.

"Does fun entail us dancing with you on this thing?" Pidge asked skeptically. Aurora laughed.

"Not if you don' want to. But I've always loved this thing." Aurora said, patting the console that beeped at her as she touched the screen.

"We wanted to try out the globe game. It's supposed to be really cool." Hunk said. Aurora nodded and gestured to her flight crew.

"That's where the boys want to go but I wanted to play this first. I just finished my first game when Keith spotted you guys." Auroa said with a nod to him. "I was trying to get one of them to play _Dance, Dance Revolution_ with me but now that you're all here, I guess they've been saved." Aurora said with a shrug, bouncing onto the ground.

"I'm not a dancer."Keith says.

"And I dance but nobody should have to see that." Parker said, making everyone but Aurora laughed. Aurora instead rolled her eyes.

"These things literally teach you how to dance idiots. It's not that hard." Aurora insists.

"I'll dance with you." The words come out of Lance's mouth before he can stop then. Aurora looked back at him with a wide smile.

"Really?" Lance shrugged. He don't know why he offered. He had never really played one of these things before.

"Why not?" Aurora squealed and pulled him onto the dancepad.

"Awesome! Let's play." She glanced back at their friends. "We're going to show them how it is done." She held up her hand to Lance and he high fived her happily as she inserted 8 quarters and started the game.

"Pick the girliest song you can find Aurora!" Parker said with a laugh as Aurora hit the right arrow with her foot, moving from one song to the next looking for one that she liked.

"I'll be fine with whatever you pick Aurora." Lance said. Aurora looked at him with a grin. "Well good." She said, choosing the song _Be Together_ by Nini. "This specific song is in a movie I really love and honestly it's one of the best scenes of the whole movie." Aurora said as the game began to count down.

"What was the movie?" Pidge asked as the song started up and Aurora and Lance began to step on the appropriate arrows.

"Well I don't know if you like romance movies Katie but it's called the _Kissing Booth_." Aurora said as the song picked up speed. Lance's heart pounded wildly in his chest. "The two characters who dance to this song," She continued, "were best friends. Switch Lance." Aurora said but Lance didn't know what she meant so Aurora laughed, grabbed his arm and slid him to the next gamepad as she stepped onto his.

"Actually I've seen that movie." Keith said.

"So have I. I cried at the ending." Hunk admitted. "I didn't think that..." Aurora shushed him.

"Don't spoil the movie for everyone else!" She said with a laugh. "Come on Lance keep up. You're not doing so hot. Switch." Lance was ready this time and together, the two of them jumped back to their original dance pads.

"The songs a little faster than it seems." Lance said. "How are you doing this so well?" Aurora grinned.

"I've played this song a bunch of times because I love the movie so much." Aurora turned, facing away from the screen and somehow was still able to step on all the right arrows.

"Holy shit." Lance said. Aurora laughed.

"Don't be such a show off." Parker said, nudging Aurora's arm a little. Aurora stuck her tongue out at him.

"Songs about to end. Pick up the pace McClain." Aurora sang out as the chorus started to repeat itself.

"No more switching then. I need to concentrate." Aurora laughed but nodded, continuing to hit every arrow perfectly. By the end of the song, Lance's score was barely half of what Aurora ended up with.

"I think you only have that many points because Aurora and you switched dance mats." Keith said to Lance with a smirk.

"Oh shut up Kogane. I'd like to see you do better." Lance said, gesturing to the machine.

"Aren't we supposed to go to that new game?" Keith deflected with a grin.

"Can we please." Pidge begged.

"Alright, alright I'll let you off the hook Kogane." Aurora said, patting his shoulder. "But next time I'm getting you on that game."

* * *

Lance found himself wandering the arcade after he and Pidge parted ways so she could go to the bathroom. Aurora, Parker and Hunk were still at the globe game, having the time of their lives but Keith had separated some 20 minutes ago to see if his favorite shooting game was open and obviously it was if he never came back.

Lance found Keith in front of a first person shooter zombie game. It was one that Lance didn't know well but most shooting games follow the same principals. Kill all the bad guys, don't die, and get enough points to go to the next level. And by the looks of it, Keith was just about to loose on level 4.

"Looks like you suck." Lance said, making Keith jump at the sound of his voice. He glanced at him for a second but continued to play.

"Not really. There's not that many levels on here and..." As his character died, a _New High Score_ banner popped up. "I have all the high scores anyways." Keith said, entering his name as _Keith K._

"What? That's imposs..." Lance shut up though as the screen changed and Keith's new score bumped out a previous one made by someone else. Every other score on the screen read _Keith K_. Keith gave Lance a smug look and Lance rolled his eyes. "Oh whatever Keith."

"I bet I can beat you at the two player high score challenge." Keith said, leaning up against the console, trying to look cool but to Lance, Keith just looked cocky.

"Oh yeah Kogane? You're on." Keith felt butterflies flutter in his stomach. Lance accepted his offer? Was he dreaming? Well, it's not like Lance accepted going on a date with him or anything but Keith felt giddy all the same.

"Okay." He said maybe a bit too enthusiastically as he watched Lance begin to put coins into the game. Keith fished around for four quarters in his pocket and immediately followed suit.

"I'm a good shot Kogane. I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into."

"Did you not see the Top 5 list. I'm _all_ of the high scores." Keith said with a laugh, choosing the 2 player version of the game.

"Yeah well you've never gone up against me." Keith felt chills run down his spine and he smiled. He knew he liked Lance but he never knew Lance could make him feel this way. "Prepare to eat your words Kogane." Lance said as the game counted down.

"Bite me McClain." Lance looked at Keith. He had the largest grin on his face and Lance smiled a little too.

* * *

Lance won.

He didn't know he would but he had hoped he might. He had expected Keith to be pissed off, to be indignant or jealous but neither of those things happened.

"Lance you're amazing!" Keith exclaimed, gesturing to Lance's high score. "You're like a sharpshooter." Lance felt his heart warm.

"Oh, well, thanks Keith." He said, trying not to blush.

"You should play the first player version. I'm positive you'll kick me out for the highest score." Lance started at Keith dumbfounded. He was being so nice it was kind of... Weird.

"Well I think it was mostly my drive to beat you at something that got me that high score." Keith laughed.

"I guess we make a great team then." He said. Lance's heart pounded in his chest.

"Yeah, I guess we do."


	12. Jealous

"Carter Kane as I live and breathe." Aurora heard him laugh a bit nervously as she walked towards him. He was wearing his standard engineer jumpsuit but instead of wearing it like a normal person, he currently had it unzipped to the waist, the arms of the suit tied around the back exposing his broad arms, shoulders and chest. A white tank top to contrast his dark skin and accentuate the muscles of his arms. She always loved visiting him while he was working because he always looked so good like this. His dark curly hair was cut neatly and his smile was as sheepish as ever.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere else Ms. De la Cruz?" He asked.

"Probably but then I wouldn't get to look at you." Aurora said with a smile.

"You flatter me." Kane said, wiping at his forehead with the back of his hand as he put down his tools and began wiping his hands on the already grimy towel tucked into his waistband. "Need something?"

"Just my daily dose of you. What have you been up to?" Kane shrugged.

"All the same things. Fixing engines, replacing parts, making sure that damn simulator people keep crashing works properly." Aurora laughed.

"Sorry, my bad." Kane rolled his eyes.

"You're not Pilot class."

"I know but I am very distracting." Kane had no arguments there. Aurora was a nice girl. She flirted with him every now and then but Kane knew it was just to see him blush.

"I know you are. You never let me get my work done when you're around."

"Oh I think that's your fault Carter Kane. I've told you I love watching you work." Aurora said leaning against the car he had been working on. Carter was just shot to reply when someone else said,

"Cadet, stop bothering my engineer and get back to class or study hall or whatever the hell you're skipping right now." Aurora stood straighter, turned and saluted Captain Adam Whitney. Adam merely rolled her eyes away her breech in protocol as she smiled at him.

"Aye aye Captain Whitney." Adam rolled his eyes as she turned back to Kane. "See you later beautiful."

"Until next time Aurora." Kane said with a smile as she began to walk away.

"I need a damn bell on that girl." Adam muttered, watching Aurora exit the garage. Kane chuckled.

"Her father wouldn't be too happy about that." Adam grimaced.

"I know." He said. "And I know she's his daughter but damn, letting her dye her hair, allowing her to flirt with guys older than her, letting her roam the base unsupervised.... It's not protocol." Kane shrugged.

"She's harmless and a good technician." Adam sighed because both statements were true.

"I just wish she would follow the rules more."

"As she would say," Kane said, getting back to work, "Rules are meant to be broken."

* * *

"I went to go visit the love of my life today." Aurora sang out with a laugh. Lance looked at her startled but Keith and Parker simply shook their heads. Lance was thankful that at least Pidge and Hunk looked just as confused as he did.

"I don't know how you get away with half of the stuff you do." Parker said, continuing to text someone on his phone furiously.

"Yeah is that where you went in the middle of Lieutenant Dramer's class? He was livid when you came back." Keith said.

"Wait, wait wait." Pidge interrupted. "Who is the love of your life?" Aurora laughed again.

"It's just a joke. He's not actually the love of my life. Just really buff and cute and nice." Aurora shrugged.

"Okay but who are we talking about here?" Lance continued. Aurora glanced over at him, trying to forget that Lance actually liked her at some point/might still be harboring feelings for her.

"Um do you know Carter Kane? The Engineer that works on the base?"

"You know Engineer Kane?" Hunk asked, interrupting Lance before he could speak. "That dude's like my hero. He can disassemble and reassemble an entire plane in under three hours." Aurora sighed dreamily.

"Yeah, he's amazing." Lance frowned. He remembered Kane. He was a couple of years older than them. Lance had seen him around the base before. He didn't know Aurora talked to him or thought he was cute. Though, he had to admit, he could see the appeal in a guy like that. He was pretty muscled, had a nice smile and seemed like a pretty good guy.

"She always goes and bugs him and then Adam asks me to tell her to knock it off but Aurora never listens." Aurora shrugged as she dropped down onto the couch Keith was sitting on and quickly spread out so her head was on Keith's lap and her feet were on top of Parker's crossed legs.

"Captain Whitney loves me." Aurora said with a grin. Keith rolled his eyes.

"Hardly. He can't even stand _me_ half the time with all the rules and regulations I break. He's a stickler for that sort of thing." Keith said.

"Why do you always call him Adam?" Hunk asked. "I feel like you never told us." Keith shrugged. He probably hadn't.

"Well you all know how Shiro is like, my brother right?" Everyone nodded and Pidge even paused in her assignment and half closed her laptop so she could listen to Keith. "Well it's not common knowledge, especially with him gone right now but Shiro and Adam have been dating about... Two years now." Parker's jaw dropped and everyone else looked just as surprised, except for Aurora who already knew because, thanks to her father, she knows all Garrison gossip.

"They have? I just thought they were flight partners! That's why they moved in together, spent so much time together..." Lance said.

"Okay but you've always been a little oblivious Lance. Matt I think mentioned something about them being together once but I didn't know what he meant I guess." Pidge mused. "It does make sense when you think about it." Keith nodded.

"Yeah and even before they were together, I called Adam, Adam all the time. It's his name and he didn't want me calling him Captain Whitney when it was just the three of us hanging out." Keith said.

"Wow I never would have guessed that Captain Shirogane and Captain Whitney were together. I feel like my mind has been blown." Parker murmured. The friends laughed and Keith sighed a little, thinking about the two men he considered his brothers. They had taught him so much and had helped him to grow and accept himself. They were his family.

Sometimes Keith felt a little jealous of their relationship though. When Shiro and Adam weren't together, he never felt like a third wheel and now he always did and it sucked. Keith wished he could be with someone and not feel so alone all the time. Having two brothers was great. Being around an old married couple wasn't as cool.

Keith looked to Lance and drifted off into his fantasy world again where Lance and him were together. He could hold Lance's hand and they could hang out with Shiro and Adam and Keith would be happy. But as Keith was thinking this he noticed that Lance was looking off to a group of girls in a different part of the lounge area. Keith followed his gaze.

Rizavi and several other girls he didn't particularly recognize were talking around a table and every now and then one of the girls with long blonde hair that was braided almost into a crown would glance over at them, blush and giggle before continuing to talk with the rest of them. Lance started to smile.

"Well speaking of significant others I think I've just managed to charm one of Rizavi's friends over there and I'm going to go talk to them." Lance said, standing up. Aurora cheered a little but Lance hushed her.

"Yay!" Aurora whisper shouted. Who was secretly happy that Lance seemed to have moved on from her. But Keith was stricken. He had hoped that if Lance at least still liked Aurora, then they would hang out more but if he was moving on to a different girl, Keith could lose his chance to be with him. That is, if Lance was even into guys in the slightest.

"Oh don't bug them Lance." Pidge said. "I'm sure you're just seeing things." She teased. Lance flipped her off and Pidge giggled as they all watched him straighten out his uniform before heading towards the group of girls.

* * *

"Hello ladies." Lance greeted. "How are we doing today?" He said as the circle of five girls looked up at him. Rizavi sat in the middle and to her right was Carter and Diaz to her left was Vaughn and Lancaster.

"Hello Lance, we're doing fine thank you." Rizavi answered for them, half of the girls giggled.

"Well, my friends and I noticed that you all seemed quite interested in us and sent me to ask why." Lance said with a grin, sitting in the only open seat at the table in between Diaz and Lancaster.

"What like an Ambassador?" Lancaster asked, nudging him a little. Lance grinned.

"Exactly like an ambassador." The girls laughed again.

"Well," Said Rizavi. "If you must know. We were just talking about you."

"Me?" Lance asked, feigning surprise. Really?" Rizavi nodded.

"Yes, you, Jenkins, Kogane and De la Cruz." Lance was going to reply but that collection of names startled him.

"What were you talking about?" Lance said, truly interested now.

"Do you know if Parker is dating anyone?" Vaughn asked.

"Uhhhh..." Lance stammered.

"And what about Aurora? Do you know which way she... Swings?" Diaz asked, hazel eyes sparkling with mischief. Lance blushed red not sure if he should tell Diaz or not since it wasn't something he should be telling others.

"No I... I don't know actually. Do you like her?" Lance asked. Paula Diaz didn't strike Lance as someone who was into girls. Wasn't she always flirting with Griffin and Chavez?

"Not sure. But she is really pretty." Lance smiled a little.

"Yeah, she is. You should talk to her and find out if you're interested." Diaz shrugged.

"I'm mainly trying to make my ex-boyfriend jealous." Diaz admitted. "Which is why I'm glad you came over here. He's practically fuming right now." Lance didn't know who Diaz had been dating but he didn't try to look around to see who looked pissed off.

"Either way.." Lancaster butted in, tearing a piece of notebook paper out of her book and handing it to Lance. "This is my number. I think you're cute and despite Rizavi's testimonies that you're a big goofball..." Lance half glared at Rizavi who shrugged, smiling. "I happen to like goofballs." Lance blushed red, his heart pounding in his chest. Olivia Lancaster was beautiful. She had long blonde hair and a gorgeous smile and was an engineer. If he didn't love Hunk so much, Lance would've complained that he didn't get someone like her on his flight crew.

"Right, well. I'll be sure to text you then." Lance said, preparing to stand.

"Wait." Carter pleaded, grabbing his hand. Lance paused. "Can you... Can you tell me about Keith?" Lance cocked his head a little. Carter looked sad, desperate even.

"Umm what do you want to know? He's a dumb mullet wearing guy. He's not that special or anything." Carter seemed to wince and suddenly Lance remembered a conversation that had happened nearly two weeks ago.

_Truth be told, Keith accidentally broke a girls heart earlier this week._

"Oh god Jillian you're the one that..." Lance stopped and the rest of the girls nodded solemnly. Lance took a deep breath. "Listen, I don't know if Keith ever apologized for what happened but.."

"He did." Jillian interrupted. "He apologized later that same night, personally came to find me and all but he hasn't talked to me since. I used to think we were friends. I thought he liked me. He..." Carter bit her lip and stopped. Lance could tell she was on the verge of tears.

"Listen honestly, it's not the end of the world I promise. It may suck right now but you'll get over him. Take it from a guy who has gotten his heart broken several times over. You will be fine." Lance said, reaching out and touching her hand. Jillian nodded as Diaz rubbed her back. "Keith's not that great anyways I mean, come on. Who has a mullet in this day and age?" The girls laughed, even Jillian, though it was more of a pity laugh.

"Thanks Lance." Rizavi said. Lance nodded.

"Anyways, I'll see you ladies later and I'm definitely going to call you Olivia." Lance said, standing up.

"You better." She said. Lance laughed as he slowly walked back towards his friends.

* * *

"So, what happened? Did they reject you?" Parker asked. Lance flashed them all a phone number and everyone oohed and awed except for Keith who felt almost sick to his stomach.

"Who gave it to you?" Hunk asked as Lance shoved the number into the pocket of his uniform jacket.

"Lancaster." Of course! Of course Lance would go after the pretty blonde girl! Keith thought. As Lance recounted his story. Keith whispered to Aurora that he was going to head back to his room.

"What's wrong pretty boy?" Aurora asked quietly as she sat up. "You look pale."

"I'm not feeling good is all." Keith said with a shrug. "See you guys later." Pidge, Parker and Hunk said goodbye as Aurora waved and Keith rushed out of the room before he could hear anymore of Lance's story. Keith never knew he could feel so jealous before. Why was he nearly sick with it?

"Hey Keith! Buddy!" Keith paused in the corridor, his insides continuing to churn. Why was Lance following him? Keith turned.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I uhhh.. I was talking to the girls back there and Jillian Carter was among them." Keith stared at him in surprise.

"Was she? I guess I didn't see her.." Lance shrugged.

"Yeah maybe but uhh... I think you should go apologize to Jillian about what you said to her." Lance said. Keith eyed him funny. What was he talking about?

"What? I already have. I apologized to her the same day she tried to kiss me."

"Well you should do it again. She's heart broken Keith, _still_. You need to go back in there, apologize and tell her you're sorry for not returning her feelings."

"But I already _did_ all of that. It's not my fault that she can't get over it." Keith said, getting a little pissed off that Lance was telling him to go apologize to a girl that he couldn't help but _not_ have feelings for. He wasn't into her, simple as that. He wasn't into _any_ girl at this base and he couldn't help it. Lance frowned. As someone who always wanted a proper apology when a girl rejected him, one like the one Aurora had given him, it ticked him off that Keith was refusing to do that. He was _positive_ that Keith's first apology was half-assed at best.

"Just go do it. It's not going to hurt anyone."

"I don't have to do a damn thing." Keith said through his teeth.

"Why are you such an asshole?" Lance snapped at him.

"Why are you such a dick?" Keith shouted back. "Leave me the hell alone!" Keith said before storming off. Lance's shoulders fell, loosing their tension.

"Keith wait." He said, going after him.

"I said fuck off Lance." Lance paused in the corridor, watching Keith walk away. He wasn't sure why he felt so hurt by what Keith had just said.


	13. We Are Thousands of Feet From the Ground

Keith and Aurora stumbled out onto the roof, laughing hysterical and drawing the attention of Pidge, Lance and Hunk. Aurora spotted them immediately and hushed Keith, though she was still giggling herself. Aurora leaned into Keith and whispered something into his ear and Keith seemed to be disagreeing with her but Aurora took his hand anyways and dragged Keith towards the trio. Lance huffed at the sight of them holding hands and tried to focus back in on Pidge and the incoherent sentences that were flying across her computer screen.

"Hey guys! What's up?" Aurora asked, coming to a stop near them. A breeze rushed past them and Hunk caught a whiff of something he couldn't quite place but Lance could. It was the smell of marijuana. Aurora and Keith were high off their asses right now.

"I'm talking to my brother." Pidge said nonchalantly, typing out a message on the screen that made no sense to anyone but her. Aurora laughed a little.

"You mean your brother up in space? On Kerberos? Is that allowed?" Pidge glanced over her shoulder at Aurora and smiled.

"No but, what the Garrison doesn't know won't hurt them." Aurora laughed as Keith shifted a bit uncomfortably next to her.

"You know, I always thought your brother was kind of cute." Aurora admits. "He's like got these adorable cheeks and a nice laugh." Pidge starts to laugh at Aurora's shameless confession while Lance's jaw drops slightly and his heart skips a beat. Aurora was into Matt Holt and Carter Kane? Was she just into older guys?

"You think my brothers cute? He's a giant fucking dork."

"Yeah, I thought most girls would like Shiro better." Hunk said. Aurora rolled her eyes.

"Not me. Shiro's cool and all but, I'm kind of into big dorks. Your brother was like this teachers assistant for one of my classes as a cadet and I _loved_ going to that class because he was there." Pidge was typing away at her computer.

"Is it okay if I tell him that? He's going to flip that a pretty girl thinks he's cute while he's like thousands of miles away in space." Pidge says with a laugh but Lance doesn't see what's so funny. He kind of wished Aurora would stop talking about Matt.

"Type away my young friend, and tell him my name. Let's see if he remembers me." She drops down on the ground next to Pidge, even though she can't read what she's typing and Hunk tries to start a conversation with Keith.

"What were you two coming up here for?" Hunk says as Keith runs a hand through his dark hair.

"Oh Uhh... Just to look at the stars, Parker is going to come up in a little bit to join us I think." Keith says anxiously, looking back at the door for the roof access. He's kind of praying that Parker will make an appearance right now because he's feeling a little nervous now that Aurora has left his side. Or that could just be the marijuana talking. Or the fact that Lance was just five feet away and the two of them hadn't spoken in a couple of days. Pidge let's out a loud laugh, hitting her knee as she reads out Matt's reply to her message.

"What'd he say? What'd he say?" Aurora asks excitedly, shaking Pidge's arm.

"He said, _Aurora De la Cruz! I know her! I remember when she was a junior cadet. She's super pretty. We both know Lenny. Wait, don't tell her I said she's pretty it's embarrassing talking through my baby sister_. Sorry Matt, you're just so lame I had to tell them." Pidge says, grinning at her computer. Aurora smiles back happily.

"Tell him thank you." She says, standing up and shaking out her blue hair. "I can't believe he knows Lenny though, my god I want to talk to him about that."

"Whose Lenny?" Lance asked, finding an opportunity to jump into the conversation.

"Oh he's uh.." Aurora clears her throat, trying not to laugh. "He's a nice guy. Really sweet. He gives me candy sometimes." Keith snickers off to her right and Aurora flips him off. Pidge types out a reply, specifically telling her brother that she read the whole message out loud.

"Matt said he hates me and when I asked him who Lenny was, he just said he's a friend." Aurora grins.

"Tell him that when he gets back we should go see Lenny together."

"I don't get it is Lenny code for something?" Lance asks. Keith laughs again and Aurora joins him, making Lance feel like a complete idiot.

"No, it's not really code for anything it's just..." Aurora doesn't want to admit that she smokes. She's only seventeen so it's illegal at her age and since Pidge seems unaware that her brother also buys from Lenny, then she doesn't want to expose Matt's secret like that. "It's nothing Lance, I'll tell you later." Aurora says finally with a shake of her head as the door to the roof opens again.

"Hey guys!" Parker shouts.

"Whelp, There's our engineer, we'll talk to you guys later." Aurora says fist bumping Hunk before touching Lance's shoulder lightly, making butterflies fly up in his stomach. Keith is already walking towards Parker.

"Oh wait, Matt wants to know if you're asking him out, from hundreds of miles away on Kerberos." Pidge says with a large grin. Aurora laughs.

"Oh I don't know about that... We'll see what happens when he gets back. Tell him I said bye." Aurora said, waving as she headed towards her two best friends sitting on the opposite end of the room. Pidge quickly typed out the message and started to laugh at all of Matt's rushed responses.

"What's he saying?" Hunk asked, sitting down next to her.

"He's saying he has horrible luck with girls, and that it _would_ happen to him that once he's up in space a girl finds him attractive."

"Hasn't he had girlfriends before?" Lance asked, feeling a bit agitated as he listened to Aurora, Keith and Parker laugh on the other side of the roof.

"Yeah only like two or three though. He usually drives them away with his genius or nerdiness but Aurora will be able to keep up with his technical jargon." Lance looked over at Aurora, Parker and Keith now and frowned. They were all talking really close to one another and Keith was looking back at them. Frantically, Keith turned back around and Lance swallowed the lump in his throat. Ever since their fight, the six friends hadn't hung out or talked much. They didn't meet up for lunch and not much conversation had been flowing in their group chat and Lance wondered if that was mostly his fault, if Aurora was starting to dislike him because of something Keith had said. Lance sighed.

He did still like Aurora. Even though he had been talking to Olivia, and even considered going on a date with her, Lance still felt that he was hung up on Aurora. He wasn't sure why but something made him just want to be around her. Lance looked back at Keith. If he wanted to be with Aurora, then he had to be friends with Keith. It was practically a given. Lance knew he had to apologize but he didn't know how.

* * *

"You and Lance need to talk." Aurora said, nudging Keith. Keith rolled his eyes.

"We're not meant to be friends obviously." Keith said. "It was nice while it lasted but..." Keith pursed. It was nice. It was really nice. Keith missed hearing Lance's dumb puns and jokes and missed chucking jello at him during lunch. Keith even missed listening to Pidge and Aurora talk about coding and hacking and theoretical math equations. And he definitely missed Hunk's positive attitude and easygoing smile.

"But?" Aurora prompted. Keith shrugged.

"Whatever. I don't think I did anything wrong. I have apologized to Jillian. I don't know what Lance wanted me to do. I can only say sorry to someone so many times before it looses its meaning." Aurora nodded.

"You're right. I just think you need to talk to Lance about it. He must have gotten worked up for some reason." Parker loudly tore open his bag of chips and Aurora giggled as he offered her some. "Thank you my faithful engineer."

"I agree with Aurora." Parker said, mouth full of chips. "Talk to him. It's awkward between our two groups now." Keith nodded slowly.

"Alright, I'll talk to him." Keith murmured. Aurora and Parker stared at him. "What you want me to do it now?"

"Yeah why not?" Keith blushed. He wasn't ready to talk to Lance _right now_. He didn't know what to say.

"Better now than later." Aurora said with a grin. Keith groaned.

"God, fine I'll do it." Keith said, getting up and turning to look towards Pidge, Hunk and Lance. Keith was startled to see that Lance was also standing, staring at them. Keith walked forward slowly, Lance mirroring him. They met in the middle of the roof and stopped. "H-hey." Keith said.

"Hey dude." Keith licked his lips.

"I just wanted to talk about..." he stopped.

"Yeah, me too." Lance said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I actually kind of wanted to apologize for being an asshole." Keith smirked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Really? I didn't think you'd ever do that." Lance rolled his eyes at Keith.

"Alright, Alright don't make me regret this idiot." Keith laughed. "It's just, talking to Jillian and seeing how heartbroken she was made me think of all the times I had felt like that. Whenever I've gotten rejected, it's always been the same thing. The person gives some sort of half assed apology that makes me feel like an idiot for thinking there was something between us."

"Oh." Keith said. How many times had Lance been rejected before? It had always seemed like, to Keith anyways, that Lance was the heartbreaker. He was so charismatic and charming. Didn't tons of girls fall for him all the time? Wasn't he constantly having to tell girls he didn't feel the same way? "Well, I thought I apologized well enough... Maybe I didn't." Lance shrugged.

"I talked to Jillian later and she said you had. Her issue was just that she wasn't over you." Keith blushed as Lance laughed. "I told her that was crazy because you're not even that great of a guy." Lance said, hitting Keith's shoulder lightly.

"Whatever Lance, just because you don't like me doesn't mean I'm not a good person." Lance gave him a funny look.

"That's not what I'm saying Keith. I think you're a good guy. I was just messing with you." Keith blushed again and was glad that in the darkness, Lance probably couldn't tell. "Anyways, do you accept my apology?" Lance asked, holding out his hand to Keith. Butterflies fluttered in his stomach at the thought of shaking Lance's hand. Keith reached out.

"Yeah Lance, I do. Thank you." Lance's hand was warm and Keith was smiling widely.

"By the way, I keep meaning to ask you." Lance said as they dropped their hands. "What's with the mullet? You've had one since we were cadets. Why don't you cut your hair more often?" Keith touched his long hair a bit self consciously.

"I don't know. I've always kind of liked it long." Keith said which was partially a lie. He did like it long but he kept it this length because it had been this way when Lance accidentally flirted with Keith, starting this whole chain reaction of Keith falling head over heels for this idiot. Lance pursed his lips and before either of them realized it, Lance was touching Keith's hair, tugging on the strands lightly.

"Well, I guess it's not the worst haircut I've ever seen." Keith felt like he could collapse on the ground.

"That was almost a compliment. Are you even really Lance?" Keith managed to say in a joking matter. Lance laughed, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks. Had he really just touched Keith's hair and said he liked it?

"Well you're never going to hear it again mullet so savor it." Lance said. Keith smiled.

"I will." It was crazy how Lance always managed to make him this happy.


	14. I Scream, You Scream

"You better have popcorn Kogane." Lance shouted, barging into Keith's room just as Russel Harlow was exiting. "We're in for a long night." Keith was staring at him startled. Lance was wearing green, plaid pajama pants, a gray shirt and had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. In his arms he was carrying his laptop. Keith on the other hand was wearing gray sweatpants and no shirt which surprised Lance but not really. Hunk sometimes slept with his shirt off.

"Wh-what?" Keith asked, turning red. He hadn't been expecting Lance to suddenly show up, obviously, otherwise he would've dressed a little nicer.

"We said we'd watch Scream together after talking yesterday night." Lance said, unceremoniously dropping down onto Keith's bed next to him.

"Yeah but uh..." Keith said, swiftly getting up and heading to his dresser. "I thought you meant some other time not the next night." Keith opened a drawer and Lance noticed how everything was folded neatly and placed in orderly rows. Typical. Keith pulled out a plain white shirt and pulled it down over his head.

"What like you have other plans?" Lance asked, gesturing around the room. Keith had left his phone on his bed and he currently had it open to a game. Lance smiled.

"No but uhh..." Keith just really hadn't expected to see Lance tonight. Lance shrugged.

"I've been itching to re-watch this show anyways. It was so good and weirdly enough, now that I think about it, one of the girls in the show reminds me of Pidge." Keith gave him a look as he sat back down on his bed, crossing his legs.

"Really? I thought you said this is a horror show."

"It is." Lance said. "But I don't know. Just something about this girl feels familiar." Lance shrugged. "I'll show you her. Now move over to sit next to me. You won't be able to see the screen from that position." Lance said, motioning for Keith to sit closer to his right side.

"Oh um okay." Keith said, shifting across the sheets so he was shoulder to shoulder with Lance.

"Alright, let's get started." Lance said enthusiastically as he searched through Netflix for the TV Show. Keith's heart pounded in his chest. He could smell Lance's shampoo and feel the warmth of his body. He had only ever really imagined being this close to him. "Now if you get scared, do _not_ cling to me." Lance joked.

"Fuck off Lance. I don't get scared easily." Lance laughed.

"Okay, if you say so. I'll show you the girl that reminds me of Pidge when we get to her." Keith nodded. "Well, here we go." Lance started the first episode and placed his laptop on top of his and Keith's legs.

* * *

"You think _she_ looks like Pidge?" Keith demanded with a laugh, pausing the video. "First of all, this girl is way more badass looking than Pidge. Though maybe her height is similar." Lance laughed.

"I know Pidge and Audrey look different but it wasn't the looks that made me think they're similar." Lance said with a shrug. "The actor, Bex I think her name is, just I don't know makes me think of Pidge." Keith shrugged.

"Well seeing as how Pidge's hair is longer, brown, she's a technical person and her fashion sense consists of the Garrison uniform, jeans and usually a shirt with anime characters on it. I would say that Pidge and Bex have nothing in common."

"Okay fine, call me crazy." Lance said, un-pausing the show.

"Okay, you're crazy." Keith said with a smile.

* * *

"It's not that funny." Lance grumbled.

"It is! Noah is just like you. Unrequited love, dorky, lanky." Keith said. Lance groaned and shoved Keith a little.

"Shut up you asshole I'm not a dork."

"You are a dork." Keith insists. "You make dumb jokes and puns all the times and are apparently into slasher movies like he is and..."

"Okay but I'm not obsessed with it or anything like Noah is." Lance grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You are a little to make me watch this show with you."

"I thought we could watch this show together because you like horror films too! So maybe you're like Noah. Do you have any unrequited loves?" Lance asked with a roll of his eyes. Keith blushed red. He did but he wasn't going to admit it out loud. "Can we just watch without interruptions please?"

"Fine by me." Keith said with a smile.

* * *

"Isn't Emma just the prettiest girl?" Lance asked, pausing the show on her image. Keith nudged him.

"I thought we said we'd stop pausing the show. We're only on episode four Lance." Keith said, gesturing the screen. Lance snickered.

"I know but I had to show you. Look at her face isn't she just the cutest?" Lance asked, tapping the screen of his laptop vigorously. Keith shrugged. He wouldn't know. He could agree she had a nice face and pretty hair but Keith wasn't into girls.

"I would've thought you would like the blonde girl." Keith said. "Aren't you and Lancaster talking?" Keith asked, trying not to sound bitter but sounding bitter all the same. Lance shrugged, not noticing the change in Keith's voice.

"She's nice and really pretty but I don't know. She's not what I'm really looking for I guess. We seem to... Similar in a way." Keith cocked his head, a little glad that he was having this conversation with Lance at the moment. He really wanted to learn what he looked for in a significant other.

"What do you mean?" Lance thought for a moment.

"Like she makes dumb puns too you know? Dumb puns are kind of my thing. It's how I impress people." Keith snorted. "It's true. I make people laugh! I like making people laugh." Lance said with a smile. "She is pretty I just... I don't know. Maybe I'm looking for something different."

"Like what?" Keith pressed. Lance shrugged. He wasn't sure why he wasn't saying he was looking for someone like Aurora. Maybe it was because that's not what he wanted. Maybe there was something else Lance was looking for.

"What about you? You never answered me earlier. Do you like someone? Any unrequited love in your life?" Keith pursed his lips. He could admit to liking someone right? That wasn't saying too much. Keith nodded.

"Yeah, there is someone." Lance smiled.

"Who is it? Have you tried out those flirting techniques that Aurora taught you?"

_Be nice._

_Be yourself._

_Compliment them._

_Make them feel wanted._

"I don't think so. But I've never been good at following instructions." Lance snorted.

"Are you kidding me? You're like the King of following instructions. How else are you better than everyone at everything?" Keith looked at Lance like he was crazy.

"What? No I'm not."

"You are. Every time I go up against you in anything you always beat me, like you get a kick out of defeating others at what they do best. I bet you you would've beat Aurora at Dance Dance Revolution." Keith was surprised. Was Lance complimenting him? Being nice? This was weird.

"I don't try to defeat other people. I don't know maybe I feel like being the best at things to make my parents proud. They always thought I could be something great and I don't want to let them down." Lance smiled a little.

"I don't want to let my parents down either." Keith blushed and looked away.

"Besides, you beat me at something. The arcade game." Lance chuckled.

"Oh yeah, one thing." He said with a shake of his head.

"At least it's something." Keith said, pressing play on the video.

"Yeah, at least it's something." Lance murmured.

* * *

"This is a good part Keith it's where..." Lance said before he realized that Keith was snoring, passed out next to him. His head kept lolling to the side as if Keith wanted to lean against his shoulder and Lance bit his lip. Keith's hair looked silky and soft, laying against his cheeks and forehead. He would never understand this boys fascination with his mullet but the look was growing on Lance. When had he fallen asleep? If he was tired why didn't he say something? "Hey, Keith." Lance murmured, nudging him a little. Keith didn't respond though and Lance paused the show.

He said he would watch it with Keith so he couldn't just continue on in the show now that he was knocked out. But he also didn't want to just leave and have Keith be confused as to where he went. Lance took a deep breath, thinking. It was only nine, Lance could sit around for another hour or two, see if Keith eventually woke up or something. Just as Lance was about to move to sit at Keith's desk, his head finally fell on Lance's shoulder and he froze. Well fuck, now he couldn't move.

Shaking his head, Lance shifted his laptop onto the mattress and grabbed the blanket he had brought, draping it over himself and Keith before putting his laptop back down on top of his legs. Exiting out of Netflix, Lance opened another tab and decided to loose himself in Youtube videos.

* * *

Keith woke up with a start when he heard the laugh track and felt Lance's shoulders moving up and down as he tried to suppress a snicker. "Wh-" Keith said, looking around confused and rubbing his eyes.

"Hey sleepyhead." Lance teased. "I thought you would never let me leave."

"What..." Keith tried again staring at Lance confused before realizing he was sitting way too close to him, their faces inches from one another. Keith moved back slowly and rubbed the soft material of Lance's blanket between his fingers, seeing how it had been draped over the two of them.

"You fell asleep in the middle of Scream. I'm kind of offended dude."

"S-sorry." Keith stammer out, running his fingers through his hair, hoping it wasn't messy like it always is when he wakes up. He glanced over to Russel's bed but saw that his roommate wasn't in. Good, it saved Keith some embarrassment. "What time is it?"

"Past curfew so your roommate and I are breaking protocol." Lance said, removing the blanket off of himself and setting his laptop fully on Keith's lap, a video paused on the screen.

"Why didn't you just wake me up?" Keith asked. "Why let me sleep on your shoulder?"

"Because it's rude to wake someone up. You seemed tired dude so I let you sleep, no harm done." Keith nodded his head a little as he watched Lance stretch out his arms and legs.

"Well what did I miss?" Keith asked, closing Lance's laptop for him.

"Not much. After I realized you were asleep, I switched to watching youtube videos. My battery was actually dying so I'm glad you're up now. If I had to sleep here all night it would've been weird." Keith blushed.

"Yeah, weird." He stood up and handed Lance his blanket and laptop.

"Thanks dude. We should do this again sometime." Keith nodded.

"Yeah, we should." Lance's hand came down on Keith's shoulder and Keith stilled, almost praying that Lance would lean in and kiss him but as fate would have it, Russel walked in, turning on the automatic lights overhead.

"Oh fuck man." Keith said, shielding his eyes from the blinding light.

"Sorry guys but parties over. Iverson is making his rounds. We're lucky that the first Captain on watch was a little lenient but you gotta move McClain." Russel said, already changing into his pajamas.

"Right. See ya buddy." Lance said, waving at Keith and then Harlow.

"Bye Lance." Lance exited their room and Russel gave Keith a look.

"So, how was your night?" Russel was looking at Keith almost like he could tell that Keith had a crush on Lance. Keith shrugged.

"Okay. Lance and I watched _Scream_ together."

"Sounds nice."

"It was." Keith said, climbing back into bed.


	15. In This Moment I Let Go

"You and Keith have been hanging out a lot without us." Hunk said, fiddling with the device in his hands. Lance shrugged.

"Yeah, we're watching Scream together. We're just barely on season two." Pidge laughed.

"Just barely? You two have been hanging out to watch that show for over a week now. How are you just getting to season two? The first season only has 10 episodes." Lance blushed. Honestly, he and Keith found that they couldn't concentrate very well on the show. They were always pausing it to talk to one another and when they did get to talking, sometimes they just couldn't shut up. Lance felt like he had learned more about Keith in this last week than he had ever thought possible.

_Up until Keith was ten he had been afraid of the dark._

_When Keith was seven he broke his arm from falling out of a tree._

_He had passed his drivers test on the first try._

_Keith hated pickles and white bread and was allergic to dairy._

Lance felt like his head was full of random Keith related facts now. "I don't know. We end up talking. He's actually not such a bad guy once you get to know him." Lance admitted. About a month or two ago, Lance would have never imagined saying something like that about Keith. 

"Isn't that what Aurora always said?" Hunk asked with a smile. Lance rolled his eyes.

"How is that plan of yours going by the way?" Pidge asked, pausing the game on her laptop to look up at her friends. 

"What plan?" Lance asked, confused.

" _Operation Make Aurora Like Me_?" Pidge prompted. 

"Oh right." Lance shrugged. "Maybe you guys were right. It's a stupid idea." 

"See, I told you he'd figure it out eventually." Hunk said with a grin. "So you're giving up on Aurora then?" Lance shook his head.

"No, I didn't say that. I'm just saying it was a dumb plan to try to get Aurora to like me by getting Keith to like me. But now that Keith and I are friends it doesn't hurt my chances with her. It might actually help." Pidge and Hunk shared a look.

"You're dumb Lance." Pidge said.

"No I'm not. I'm just desperate for love. There's a difference." Pidge shook her head and exited out of her game on her laptop before closing it completely.

"Well, good luck again I guess. Hopefully it doesn't blow up in your face. I'll see you guys later." 

"See ya Pidge." Hunk said, brushing at invisible dust on the screen of his monitor. Lance waved lightly, trying to focus back on his homework on the desk. 

"What are you even doing to that thing Hunk?" He asked. Hunk looked up at him and arched an eyebrow.

"Would you be able to understand me if I explained it?" Lance hesitated.

"Probably not. Don't say anything." Hunk chuckled. 

"Focus on your own work McClain." Lance stuck his tongue out at his roommate and settled back into his seat.

* * *

"Our friends think we're idiots for taking this long to watch a show." Lance said as he leaned back in Russel's chair as Keith hit play for the next episode. 

"Maybe we are. We don't know how to shut up apparently." Keith said with a grin. 

"Yeah but hey, at least we're talking and not fighting like we usually do."

"You've got a point there." Keith said as the opening theme began on the screen. 

"Got any food Kogane? I'm starving."

"We just came back from lunch." Keith said, watching Lance pull open drawers of his desk but only finding papers, notebooks and other boring school supplies like textbooks. Keith shook his head and opened a drawer on his left. In it Lance could see a bag of marshmallows and a picture of what looked like a younger Keith. Keith took out the marshmallows and more of the picture was revealed to show Keith with a man Lance didn't recognize. "Here." Keith said, handing him the unopened bag.

"Why do you just have marshmallows?" Keith shrugged. 

"Because I like them."

"They're unopened." 

"I haven't eaten them yet. It's not like they go bad." Keith closed the drawer, hardly glancing at the photo. He didn't like looking at it often or the one next to it with both of his parents. 

"Was that a picture of your family?" Keith glanced back at the drawer. Had Lance seen it? That was kind of embarrassing. 

"Um.. Yeah." He murmured. Lance popped a marshmallow into his mouth.

"You never talk about them." Keith shrugged. "Well come on, what are they like?" Keith gave Lance a funny look. Most people avoided this conversation with him, even Aurora, though he knew she wanted to ask him. But Aurora was always waiting for Keith to bring them up first and Keith hated doing that. He hated talking about them because it always made him unbearably sad. Most people know that Keith's parents are dead but Lance was acting like he didn't. And that's because, Lance had comply forgotten. 

"They're parents." Keith said, suddenly deciding for at least the next few minutes that he would pretend they were alive. "Dad was a firefighter, mom was a soldier. She actually worked at the Garrison here for a bit."

"Oh really? That's cool you're following in her footsteps." Keith smiled a little. Somehow he had never really seen it like that before.

"Yeah. I guess you're right."

"What I don't understand is, why do you consider Shiro your brother? Did he live near you while you were growing up or something?" Keith swallowed hard.

"Um no, I met Shiro when he came to visit our school one day. I was in middle school and I think he had just barely become Second Lieutenant at that time. I don't remember but he showed us a simulation box, kind of like the ones we have here. I was the only one who _nearly_ beat it. Shiro saw something in me that nobody else had up until then, potential."

"Well, I'm sure your parents saw it too." Lance said, still happily eating the marshmallows. Keith licked his lips.

"Maybe. Probably actually but I don't remember much about them. My parents died when I was young." Lance's jaw nearly dropped open. 

"Keith, buddy I'm..."

"It's fine, you didn't know." Keith shrugged but Lance did know. He had just stupidly forgotten. Keith sighed. "I'm not used to talking about them actually. So it was weird having this conversation, admitting that they're gone. I've always tried to forget that they are." Lance held out the bag of marshmallows to him and Keith smiled, taking a couple. 

"What happened?"

"My mom died giving birth to me and my dad died saving people. I was in foster care when Shiro found me. He even offered to adopt me after a while but once I came to live and go to school here, he didn't need to and I live with him during the summer and on vacations." 

"What about your extended family? No uncles or aunts or grandparents?" Keith shrugged.

"My dad told me a long time ago that neither of their families actually wanted them to get married. So they did it in secret, ran away together and built a new life. I'm sure the state tried to contact some uncles or aunts here but nobody ever came to get me so I was put into the system." 

"That's terrible. I have this big, amazing family. I can't imagine not growing up without one." Keith shrugged.

"It's fine. I'm used to being alone you know? That's why Shiro is so important to me. He was the only person to make me feel like I was important or special in a very long time." Lance licked his lips.

"Well, the next break we get _we're_ going to my house. It's like three hours away which is why I unfortunately don't go home often enough but my family is great and they'd love you." Keith shook his head.

"You don't have to do that Lance." 

"I want to." Lance insisted. "It would be fun! Hunk came back with me once and Pidge lives like thirty minutes away so we could hang out with her." Keith pursed his lips. He had never done well with crowds of people, especially when that crowd was a family. He had stayed at Shiro's parents place for Christmas and Thanksgiving a couple of times and it always made him feel awkward. He was just a random extra. A side piece. He spent most of those holidays on his own, not really talking to anyone besides Shiro. "It would be fun dude. You'd be with me." Lance said, nudging Keith. Keith smiled a little.

"Well I just barely started to like you so you're not really convincing me."

"Oh shut up you love me." Lance said, rolling his eyes. 

"In your dreams." Keith said. "Now can we watch this show? I want to see why you're so pissed about this other killer." Lance groaned.

"They're a dick and they caught me completely off guard." Keith shrugged, pressing play on the show.

"My money is still on Kieran. Anyone that good looking has to be a psycho killer." Lance snorted.

"By that logic, my sexy ass should be an axe murderer." Keith glanced over at Lance who was still shoving marshmallows in his mouth. He smirked.

"You could be." Lance paused in eating, staring at Keith as a blush creeped up his cheeks. Keith, seemingly unbothered looked back at the screen of Lance's laptop. Did Keith just sort of... Flirt with Lance?

* * *

"So, how was your date with Lance?" Keith choked on the water he was drinking and Aurora gave him a funny look. "You okay Fly Boy?"

"What do you mean date? We weren't on a date. We were finishing that show Scream together. We're almost done." 

"Yeah I know Keith. It's called a joke don't get all worked up. I'm just glad you two are friends now." Aurora said, patting his shoulder. "It just happened all of a sudden too. I thought I would have to work a little harder to get my boys together." 

"We're not your boys." Parker said with a laugh, sitting down next to her, lunch tray in hands.

"Yes we are." Keith said, unwrapping his sandwich. Parker half smiled. 

"My boys. My Fly Boys." Aurora said with a grin. "I'm never going to let you two go." She said, putting one arm around Parker and the other around Keith.

"Love you too Aurora." Parker said with a smile.

"What he said." Aurora kissed Keith's cheek and then Parker's. 

"Now my boys. How are we going to shave a minute off of our flight simulation?" 


	16. Aye, Aye Captain

"Hands!" Aurora sang out, holding out one hand to Lance and the other to Keith.

"We can't walk down this hallway together, it won't leave room for people to get by." Keith said but Lance took Aurora's hand immediately.

"Oh shut up Keith and take her hand." Lance said. Aurora grinned and shook her hand out at Keith who rolled his eyes and then took it. Together, the three of them began walking down the large hallway.

"Now, what do we suppose we should do this weekend? We've exhausted all of our resources on base. We're not allowed back into the library for another week, sorry again Keith I know you use those computers." Keith shrugged. "Lance and I are _personally_ banned from the lounge for a month because of our slime incident and the roof is boring now that Parker and I are doing a detox."

"The roof isn't boring. There's star gazing." Lance said with a smile.

"Yeah but those stars are always there. We need something new. Something exciting. Something..." There was footsteps coming down the hall. Keith paused immediately.

"Stand at attention." He hissed. Keith and Lance immediately fell into line but Aurora faltered. She grinned and stepped into line with her friends, raising her hand to her forehead as the boys had done.

"Good Afternoon Cadets."

"Good Afternoon Major General Korson Sir." Lance and Keith said. Aurora's voice was absent. That smile on her face still present.

"I don't think I heard all of you." the Major General said, glaring at Aurora. Lance wanted to elbow her in the ribs. Keith wanted to kick her shin. If Aurora pissed off the Major General, they would be **_fucked_**. They could spend the rest of the week, no the rest of the month doing drills. They could be forced to clean out the cargo hangers instead of going to sleep or made to scrub the bathroom floors until their hands were raw.

"Sorry sir." Aurora said, lowering her arm so she could fake cough. "I'm a little sick."

"Not sick enough if you can still run your mouth." He snapped at her. Aurora laughed. "Have I said something funny Cadet!"

"Aye, aye Captain." Aurora said in mock salute scaring Lance and Keith half to death with how informal she was being. This was Major General Korson she was talking to, not just another Captain. He was currently the highest ranking military personal on base and she was trying to joke around with him? Lance and Keith said nothing though. The General hadn't told them to relax.

"Are we making a joke Cadet?" The General's voice boomed, echoing down the empty hallway. Lance nearly cringed. He had only ever heard him speak during the occasional announcement and he didn't even like hearing his voice through an intercom. How could Aurora stand there so calmly?

"Sir yes, sir." Aurora said, putting her hands on her hips, _still_ not saluting and _still_ looking the General in the eye. Two things she was _never_ supposed to do in his presence. Aurora and the General stared each other down and then suddenly, the General laughed. Despite how surprised the boys were, they didn't drop their arms. "Hi daddy. How's work going?" Now **that** was a sentence that nearly made their jaws drop. This was Aurora's step-father? Is that why she had never told them who it was before? Because he was literally in charge of everyone here?

"It's going fine sweet-pea. Are these two of your friends?" He asked, looking towards Lance and Keith. 

"Yes, sir." They both answered at the same time.

"They're very disciplined. I thought they were going to shit themselves when you started disrespecting me. At ease boys." Lance and Keith dropped their arms and exhaled.

"Why didn't you tell us your dad is Major General Korson?" Keith asked. "It's really an honor to meet you Sir. Shiro spoke very highly of you."

"So _you're_ Keith Kogane." The General said with a slight grimace that made Keith swallow hard. "Leave it to my daughter to be placed with the troublemaker." Aurora elbowed him in the ribs and Lance nearly fainted. She just elbowed the Major General that was a crazy thing to even think about.

"He's nice daddy." She said with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh I'm sure." He said before turning slightly to look at Lance.

"Lance McClain sir. It's an honor."

"Ah yes, McClain. Your sister talks about you often. Your family is really proud of you." Lance beamed.

"Yes, sir. They are." General Korson nodded and turned back to Aurora.

"Are you coming home this weekend honey? Mom worries about you, you know." Aurora grins, an idea forming in her head.

"I'll come home." She pauses. "Can I invite my friends over?" She asks, gesturing to Lance and Keith. The Major General's eyes narrow as he looks back over at Keith and Lance. "I want to invite Parker, Hunk and Pidge too. Maybe Rizavi and Lief if they're not going home already."

"I'm not sure honey.." He said slowly.

"We won't be trouble! I promise. We can order pizza. I'll make sure they clean up after themselves. We're just bored on the base daddy. We want somewhere to hang out for the weekend." She watched him purse his lis.

"Okay fine I'll..." Aurora squealed and hugged him happily.

"Thank you daddy! We're going to go tell our friends right now!" Aurora took off down the hall and Lance and Keith saluted before running after her.

* * *

"You excited to sleepover at Aurora's house?" Keith asked.

"What? No way. I'm scared shitless." Lance said, running one hand through his hair as he finished setting up the monitor and video game console. "Why would I be excited? We're going to be in _the_ Major General's house. That's the scariest thought in the world." Keith shrugged.

"I thought you liked Aurora though. Wouldn't it be cool to be in her house? See where she's been living? What her house life is like?" Keith asked, trying to be nonchalant. He wasn't actually sure if Lance still liked Aurora, they had never talked about it. Keith had always been too afraid too. Lance was a little surprised as well. Somehow, in all of this, he had forgotten that he had liked Aurora. Past tense? Did he not like her anymore? When did that change? How?

"I don't know. Maybe I like her a little less now knowing who her dad is." Lance joked.

"Really? I thought that would have been even better that her dad's so high ranking." Lance shrugged.

"That doesn't really matter to me. It's cool that the Major General is her dad but sheesh... Imagine having him as a father-in law. I shudder at the thought." Lance and Keith laughed together.

"So... You don't like her anymore? Aurora was never sure." Keith pressed. Lance sat down on his bed and shrugged.

"I guess not. I haven't thought about it in a while honestly." The last time he had even discussed it with anyone was when Pidge and Hunk pointed out that Lance was spending a lot of time with Keith. What had been his dumb retort?

_He's actually not such a bad guy once you get to know him._

That was Keith. That was how Lance felt about him. Keith was still staring at him quizzically. God damnit had Lance just said all of that out loud?

"So you've moved onto some other poor helpless girl then?" Keith asked. Lance seemed to exhale, and looked back down at his phone in his hands.

"No I don't think so. I've never had any luck at this Garrison. I should go to Seattle, see all the other girls there that Aurora always talks about." Keith snickered, feeling a twinge of pain in his chest.

"They'll probably react to you the same way the girls here do." Lance smirked.

"You're probably right." Keith watched him start up the game before handing him the red controller. Keith smiled a little and settled into his seat on the floor as lance started to complain about how they would never get past level twenty.

* * *

Keith was pacing outside the office door, trying to will himself to knock. He knew he could always talk to Adam. He knew that. He'd known Adam almost nearly as long as Shiro but once they started dating, Keith had always felt a little weird around Adam. Not for any other reason than... Adam and Shiro kissed and seeing as how Keith saw Shiro as his older brother, he thought it was kind of gross watching his brother kiss someone. Keith exhaled and finally worked up the nerve to knock on Adam's door.

"Come in." The door slid open and Adam looked up briefly to see Keith standing there in his Garrison uniform. He looked a little frazzled which was new. Keith is usually very stoic, despite being a bit of a trouble maker. "Hey Keith what's up?" Adam asked.

"I just... I wanted to talk to you. I would usually tell Shiro about this kind of stuff but he's not here so..." Adam smiled a little. If Keith was coming to him, it must be important. Adam knew the bond that Shiro and Keith shared was deep, almost deep as his own bond with Shiro. If Keith wanted to talk or Adam, he wasn't doing it necessarily because he wanted to, but because he needed to.

"Alright, come in. What's wrong?" Adam asked. Keith inhaled and went and sat in the chair in front of Adam's desk, the door sliding shut behind him.

"Nothings wrong I just.... You know that guy I like? Lance McClain?" Adam nodded, he'd heard enough about McClain to know that Keith was kind of obsessed with him. "Well I'm friends with him. We've kind of been friends for almost a month and a half now." Adam's eyes widened a little.

"Wow really? How did that happen? I thought you said Lance hated you." Keith nodded, running one hand through his long hair.

"Well the girl on my flight crew Aurora De la Cruz, she became friends with him suddenly. I guess they had a class together or something and since she's my friend too, she wanted my flight crew to hang out with Lance's flight crew and suddenly Lance wanted to hang out with me a lot and play video games together and watch tv and go to the arcade and..."

"Woah woah, breathe Keith, breath." Keith took a deep breath, feeling winded after his little rant. Adam handed him a water bottle but Keith shook his head. "Okay so what are you worried about? You sound worried."

"I'm just... I really like him Adam and I want to tell him but I don't even think... I mean what if I tell him and he hates me and he stops hanging out with me. I like being around him. He's so nice and funny and a lot cuter up close and..." Keith blushed red. Why was he even talking to Adam? This was _super_ embarrassing. Adam laughed as Keith dropped his head into his hands.

"Don't be embarrassed Keith. You like this guy. There's nothing wrong with that."

"But he doesn't like me the same way. He likes Aurora. Or I guess liked Aurora at one point. I don't know. He's not even gay so I should just get over him or something."

"Have you asked him?" Adam said.

"What?"

"Have you asked him about his orientation?" Keith shook his head.

"No but I just assumed...."

"Don't assume Keith." Adam interrupted. "Do you know how long I spent assuming Shiro was straight?" Keith laughed. It had been about three years. Shiro has told Keith about his sexual orientation almost right off the bat because he didn't want to make Keith feel uncomfortable at such a young age but frankly, being around Shiro and seeing him as a tall, strong, confident and gay leader made him feel better about himself. It even helped Keith realize how he felt about boys as well. Shiro had never told Adam though. Shiro thought he had but he never did so one day when Shiro made a joke about how he was gay, Adam's jaw had dropped almost to the floor. 

"I know but..."

"But nothing, talk to him about it. Tell him about yourself even. Shiro is always telling you that you have to open up to more people and he's right."

"I just... I've never trusted anyone like I trust you and Shiro." Adam felt touched hearing Keith say he trusted him.

"Keith, you need too. Aurora and Lance, they sound like great people. If they can't accept you for who you are then you don't need them in your life." Keith knew Aurora would accept him. Lance was another matter and he was the one Keith was the most worried about.

"Thanks Adam. I'm glad I came here." Keith said with a small smile. "I miss Shiro."

"So do I buddy." Adam said with a sigh, leaning back into his chair. "When that asshole comes back I'm never letting him leave again." Keith laughed.

"You and me both. A year in space is just... Way too long." Adam smiled as Keith stood. "I'll let you get back to work. Thanks again Adam."

"No problem Keith."


	17. Here's To Now and To Nothing Else

Aurora's house as bigger than everyone expected but when your father is Major General Korson, I guess you can afford a place like this. "Holy shit." Lance said, standing next to Keith. "This place is huge."

"Yeah, my parents got it for cheap because the last family who lived here was murdered." Aurora said with a grin. Around her everyone paused in dragging their stuff up her steps and into the house. Aurora laughed. "I'm kidding! Nobody's died here, come on." Aurora said, running up the rest of the steps and heading through the front door.

"I can never tell when she's kidding or not." Parker said with a sigh, walking past Lance and Keith.

"She better be." Pidge grumbled. "If I feel one cold spot or see one apparition, I'm booking it out of here." Hunk laughed as he followed her inside.

"Ready to see the Major General." Keith joker, nudging Lance.

"God no. If he makes us stand at attention, I'm just going to leave. I'm going to be stressed out all night." Lance said, holding open the door for Keith. Keith smiled and headed inside past the large front room and towards the sound of Auroras voice.

"It sucks that Leif couldn't come." Aurora said. Leif has always been a bit more reclusive and said she had her weekend filled up already and wouldn't be able to make it to the sleepover.

"What happened to Rizavi?" Hunk asked. Aurora smiled a little.

"When I asked her Griffin was unfortunately right there and made some snarky remark. Rizavi punched him in the stomach to shut him up and got in trouble."

"I thought they were friends." Pidge said.

"They are but Rizavi also sees how big of a dick he can be sometimes." She sighed, flopping down onto a beanbag on the floor of the living room. "Anyways, what do we want to do first? My parents aren't home." It was the middle of the afternoon on Saturday. The seven friends had free reign of the house.

The Garrison friends spent five hours switching back and forth between different activities as they got bored. They first tried watching TV and when nobody could pick something, they switched to video games but when Keith and Pidge nearly got into a fight over which character was better than which, Aurora stepped in and dragged her friends upstairs where they started to play an assortment of board games that she had. "We're not 12." Parker said, spinning the dial for the game Life.

"Well, we gotta do something that won't make us want to kill each other. Which means Monopoly is out and Sorry."

"All games are competitive." Hunk pointed out.

"Well then maybe I need friends who aren't super competitive." Aurora said with a smile.

"Well I think you picked the wrong friends then." Lance said, slinging his arm around Keith who immediately felt his heart jump to his throat. "You know how competitive Keith and I are."

"Well you too need to stop with the pissing contest and start having fun." Aurora said, tossing some paper money at them.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Katie exclaimed. "Are we going to play or throw money around?" Aurora laughed as everyone sat down.

* * *

Three pizza boxes later, the six friends found themselves bored out of their minds at only six-thirty. "Well, it didn't take long for us to get bored with one another." Parker said, who was playing a game on his phone. Aurora groaned.

"We need to do something interesting!" She complained.

"Like what?" Hunk asked. Aurora thought for a moment, pacing the room a little. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers.

"Hey! Let's play one of those games you always see in teen movies." Aurora says happily, flopping down onto one of the beanbag chairs. Pidge scrunches up her nose in slight disgust.

"Ew, spin the bottle?" Lance's heart thumps wildly in his chest.

"No." Aurora says with a roll of her eyes. "The boy to girl ratio in here isn't good and I don't want to make people uncomfortable."

"Thank god if I had to kiss Lance I would throw up." Hunk said, wiping his forehead of invisible sweat. Lance hit Hunk's arm.

"Anyone would be lucky to kiss me. Don't even try Hunk." Everyone laughed and Keith blushed a little as he locked eyes with Aurora. She was looking at him currently with a mischievous smile. She couldn't possibly know that he liked Lance right?

"No I was thinking two truths and a lie, never have I ever, or just truth or dare." Aurora said with a grin.

"I'm down for truth or dare." Parker said, taking a sip of his soda.

"How about the rest of you?" Hunk and Lance agreed. Pidge said she didn't care either way and when Aurora looked at Keith he simply shrugged. "Truth or dare it is!" She exclaimed. "I'll go first. Keith, truth or dare." Immediately Keith could feel where this whole game was going and it made him want to walk out of the house and in front of a moving truck.

"Truth." He said, thinking he might be safe. What if Aurora dared him to kiss the cutest person here? Keith wouldn't be able to help himself. He would plant one right on Lance. But by the look on her face, truth wasn't a safe answer either.

"Who do you think is the _most_ amazing person in this room?" Parker who was sitting just a foot away from her snorted. Lance, Hunk and Pidge could sense that there was an inside joke going on between the three of them but nobody knew what Aurora was getting at.

"You." Keith said, blushing because he knew he was kind of lying. Aurora was amazing but Keith thought Lance was the _most_ amazing.

"Hmm.. Okay. Your turn to ask someone." Aurora said fixing her sitting position so she was now leaning against the bean bag and now lying against it.

"Umm.. Hunk, truth or dare?" Keith asked nervously. Hunk pursed his lips and then shrugged.

"Dare." Keith paused. He hadn't thought of anything to say after he asked the question. Suddenly Lance was leaning in to whisper something to him.

"Dare him to eat spoonfuls of mayonnaise he hates that stuff." Keith looked at Lance bewildered. Lance was grinning from ear to ear though.

"What did he just tell you?" Hunk demanded, frowning a little.

"I uhh.. I dare you to eat a couple spoonfuls of mayonnaise." Lance and Pidge busted up laughing while Hunk gave them the stank eye.

"I hate you Lance."

"No you don't buddy. I just hope Aurora has mayonnaise." Aurora was already getting up, laughing.

"You bet your sweet ass I do." She said, disappearing into the hallway. And so the night progressed. Parker was dared to stick his arm into the trash can. Hunk had to confess who he liked. Pidge was dared to put on makeup. Lance was dared to get slapped in the face by Pidge (who left a red mark on his face). Aurora confessed who her first kiss was while also simultaneously coming out to the rest of her friends that she was bisexual. Everything was pretty innocent and juvenile until Pidge finally said,

"I dare you to go skinny dipping in Aurora's pool." Lance's jaw dropped while Pidge laughed her ass off.

"Pidge! We're in Major General Korson's house. If he catches me skinny dipping..." Lance didn't even want to think about it.

"Fine fine, then I want you to show us one of your diving moves you're always talking about." Lance exhaled gratefully.

"You swim?" Aurora asked.

"Yeah. I took a lot of lessons as a kid. I thought I might want to go into the Olympics one day but then I realized I wanted to be a pilot more." Lance shrugged. "I'm still really good at diving and doing laps. My teachers all thought I might one day beat a record set by Michael Phelps."

"That's cool. I can't float for shit." Parker said, making everyone laugh.

"Well what the fuck are we waiting for! To the pool!" Aurora said, jumping up and pointing to the glass screen door. Pidge stood and unlocked it and all the friends piled out after her into the freezing night air.

"Oh fuck is this why you dared me?" Lance asked, shivering a little and rubbing his arms as they all walked barefoot across the concrete.

"Yes. I literally checked the temperature before I dared you and thought it would be perfect." She said with a snicker. Lance rolled his eyes and shoved Pidge a little.

"You're the worst."

"I know." Pidge said airily, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Alright Lance, hurry up. It's cold as fuck." Hunk said, gesturing to the pool.

"Just a regular dive?" Lance asked. "I can do that one where the water doesn't even splash."

"Ooooo. Do that one." Aurora said, happy but cold. Lance nodded and started to remove his shirt.

"What are you doing?" Keith asked, before anyone else could, astounded as he stared at the muscles of Lance's back.

"If I get my clothes wet. I'll be more cold. Do you have towels Aurora?"

"Oh right! Be right back." Keith watched her go and when he turned back around Lance was already removing his jeans. Keith blushed hard, looking away as Lance began to stretch out his arms.

"I haven't done this in a while. I might mess up." Lance admitted.

"It's fine. As long as you're colder than we are currently, I don't give two shits." Pidge said, rubbing her arms vigorously. Lance laughed and breathed out slowly, seeing his breath in the air. 

"Towel acquired!" Aurora called out, reappearing from the sliding class doors. "You may proceed with the dive." She announced. Lance grinned and turned back to the pool.

"You don't by chance have a pool heater do you?" Lance asked.

"Not on your life." Aurora said with a grin.

"God damn. Alright here I go." Hunk, Pidge, Parker, and Aurora cheered while Keith continued to stare (almost open mouthed) at Lance's back. Lance got into position, fixed his form as best as he could and dove into the pool with barely a splash. Everyone started to cheer and Lance cursed as he came up for air.

"Holy shit it's cold!" He shouted. "Oh my god." He swam back towards the edge and Pidge walked over and held out her hand.

"You're welcome." Instead of taking her hand though, Lance grabbed her ankle and Pidge screamed.

"Time to come in Pidgey!" Lance crowed.

"I swear to god Lance!" Pidge screamed. "Let go of me!" Lance laughed and let go of Pidge's ankle who immediately ran back inside as Aurora laughed and walked over to the pools edge. Lance hauled himself out of the water and Keith's jaw nearly dropped as he stared at Lance. His boxers hung low on his hips from the water and he was running one hand through his wet hair making Keith's stomach do flips.

"Wow that was pretty cool." Aurora said with a smile, handing Lance the towel she had brought.

"Thanks." Lance said with an even wider smile, wrapping the towel around his broad shoulders as he shivered. "Can we stop with the dares now?" He asked as everyone began to head inside. "I want to get warm and watch scary movies."

"Yeah we can do that." Aurora said. "Why else do I have a flat screen?" Lance laughed and shivered hard. Keith was still staring at him, and was thinking how he would literally cut off his left arm just to kiss his stupid face right now. Lance had the towel wrapped around his waist now and all Keith could think about was how he looked like he had just taken a shower and wasn't wearing anything bellow the waist.

* * *

"Jesus turn the heater on or something. I'll never get warm." Lance said, as he emerged from the bathroom in flannel pajama bottoms and an old shirt. He hadn't thought he would be this fucking cold tonight and hadn't brought a sweater or jacket with him or anything.

"How about I give you a blanket instead." Pidge said, holding out a blue, wool blanket towards him. Lance took it and wrapped it around his shoulders, still shivering hard.

"Dang dude you're making me cold just by looking at you." Parker said. Keith pursed his lips, staring at Lance who stood in the middle of the room. His hair was still wet but to Keith, Lance looked warm and cuddly and cute. Keith wrapped his own blanket tighter around his shoulders. He would give anything to share a blanket with Lance right now.

"Sit next to Keith." Aurora said, surprising Keith. "He's like a personal heater." Aurora was speaking from experience. She sat next to him constantly and always complained that he as too warm.

"I know." Everyone turned to look at Lance as he ran his hands through his hair, shaking out some of the water. "We were watching Scream together and he fell asleep next to me. He was so warm I thought I would suffocate." Hunk whispered something to Pidge who giggled. Keith shifted around uncomfortably on the large armchair, tightening his grip on he blanket around his shoulders. Could the two of them even fit right here? Keith would practically have to sit on top of Lance for this to work or vice versa.

"Well sit next to him and I'll put the heater on." Aurora called out, moving back into the hallway as Parker finished picking out a movie. Lance immediately walked toward Keith who was trying not to hyperventilate. He spoke it into the universe. He prayed for it and suddenly ti was about to happen. Accidentally falling asleep on Lance was one thing, sitting next to him under a blanket was another.

"What do you say my man?" Lance asked with a stupid grin on his face.

"If you make me cold..." Keith threatened lightly. Lance rolled his eyes.

"Oh shut up and scoot over." Lance said, already beginning to sit down, pulling up a corner of the blanket so he could wrap one end around himself. Keith moved to the farthest corner of the chair as possible which didn't really help. Suddenly, Keith's arm was around Lance's back. Lance's legs were on top of his and Keith felt like he couldn't breathe. "Fuck you are really warm dude." Lance said, unbothered by the whole situation much to Keith's amazement. Lance was basically sitting on top of him. Why was he so calm?

"You're okay with this?" Keith asked, the knot in his stomach tightening with anxiety.

"Yeah I used to do this with my sisters. I used to get cold a lot as kid and I sit on Hunk all the time."

"He does." Hunk said. Keith blushed. Everyone seemed to not care about what was currently happening but Keith felt like he was going to implode. Aurora walked back into the room and smiled at them.

"Okay Parker what did we choose?" She asked.

"You'll see." Parker said ominously, turning off the lights so the only source was coming off of the TV.

"Oh fuck." Katie grumbled. "I hate you guys and I hate scary movies." She complained.

"Lighten up!" Aurora said happily. "It won't be that bad."


	18. Garrison, We Have A Situation

Keith couldn't sleep and it wasn't because Hunk was snoring or because Pidge was talking in her sleep. He couldn't fall asleep because Lance was right next to him. Lance had chosen to sleep in between Hunk and Keith just five hours ago and Keith was still trying to work out why. Sure, they were friends but didn't Lance still like Aurora? That hadn't been clear to Keith when he asked Lance about it. It sounded like he didn't have feelings for Aurora anymore but what changed?

Keith rolled over onto his side, facing away from Aurora. He didn't really like sleeping this close to Lance, knowing he could reach out and touch him but shouldn't felt weird to Keith. When Lance had been sitting practically on top of him just a few hours ago, Keith had been so focused on enjoying the moment that he barely understood the movie. Which made it all the more worse when Lance finally got up and went to sit next to Pidge on the floor. Aurora had made Keith come sit between her and Parker on the sofa not long after. Aurora even put her arm around him but Keith couldn't stop thinking about Lance or staring at him. He kept wishing Lance would become cold again so he would ask to sit next to him but that hadn't happened. You never get what you wish for twice in one day.

Lance was on his side as well, facing away from Keith and he sighed as he stared at Lance's back. They were close, closer than Keith had ever expected to be with Lance but Keith still wanted more. How could he not? He'd ben practically pining after Lance since they were Junior Cadets. Keith wanted to listen to Adam. He wanted to take his advice but something stopped him every time. His fear.

Keith stiffened as he watched Lance turn around and was completely surprised to see that his eyes were still open. "Oh, hey." Lance whispered. Keith's heart was pounding in his chest.

"Hi." He said softly.

"Can't sleep?" Keith shook his head. Lance started to get up. "Come on." He whispered. Keith sat up.

"To where?" Lance motioned for Keith to follow so instead of arguing Keith got up and followed Lance. He kept his blanket around his shoulders, like Lance, and was surprised to see him head towards the sliding glass door.

"Lance, it's cold." Keith complained.

"Don't be a baby. You're warm enough for the both of us." Lance said, bumping his shoulder against Keith's. "Besides, we cant wake them up." He said, nodding back towards their friends. Keith sighed but nodded and him and Lance stepped outside.

It actually wasn't as cold as it had been earlier, surprisingly. Lance walked over to the hot tub which was still softly bubbling away. Lance guessed that the De la Cruz/Korson family had forgotten to shut it off. Lance touched the water. It was warm. Grinning, he rolled up his pants legs and sat on the edge of the tub. "It's still on?" Keith questioned, sitting next to Lance.

"Yeah and it's warm." Lance said with a grin, putting his legs into the water up to his calves. "Come on Keith, it's nice." Keith smiled a little and copied Lance, still clutching the red blanket tightly around his shoulders as Lance leaned back a little and stared at the stars. "I can't wait until we're done with school." Lance murmured. "I want to get out of here. I want to go up there." Keith followed Lance's gaze. Keith had never really thought about going to space. Sure it was a cool idea but Keith was mainly focused on the fighter pilot aspect of the Garrison. That's what he wanted to do. but then again, he hadn't always been confident about that aspect of the Garrison either. "Wouldn't it be so cool to meet aliens? I'm sure theres some out there. There has to be right?"

"I guess. I don't really think about it."

"I do. We can't be the only living species in the universe. That would be just stupid." Keith smiled a little. "I want us all to go out there together. The six us. The dream team. Meeting aliens, discovering new planets, fighting bad guys." Keith chuckled.

"It might not be like Star Trek Lance." Lance snorted.

"I hope not, I was thinking about Star Wars." Keith shook his head.

"Well I don't think _the Force_ is real and how would all six of us be sent up on a mission anyways. They're usually just teams of three or four." Lance shrugged.

"I don't know... Maybe there will be bigger missions requiring two flight crews. If there was, I'd choose you as my co-pilot." Keith snickered.

"You're going to be the co-pilot Lance. They would probably put me in charge." Keith joked. Lance thought for a second.

"Yeah, you're probably right. You'd be team leader." Keith looked at Lance in surprise.

"Seriously? I thought you'd put up a fight. I didn't think you liked me enough to leave me in charge." Lance shrugged.

"I can see your potential Keith. You're a good guy and I think we would make a great team." Keith's heart fluttered in his chest. "I'm sorry for kind of being a dick to you all these years. I don't know if I told you that yet but it wasn't cool of me to think you were some big jerky, show offy guy." Keith laughed a little.

"It's okay Lance, thanks. You're not so bad either." Lance smiled and looked back up at the sky.

"You know, if the six of us do manage to go to the stars together and we get into a fight, I can just see our friends calling Earth and being like," Lance cleared his throat and attempted to make his voice deeper. " _Garrison we have a situation here. The Pilot and Co-pilot are fighting like an old married couple again_." Keith laughed before realizing that Lance had called them an old married couple. Lance was smiling stupidly at the sky still and Keith felt his cheeks turn red from embarrassment.

Garrison we have a situation indeed.

Keith was almost positive that he was in love with Lance.

* * *

It was Wednesday morning and two Garrison classes had come together to do a joint history project with someone from the opposite class. Captain Valdez and Professor Ward were at their wits end with both classes and had decided to throw all the students together so they could push out one final project before the Thanksgiving break. Lance had hoped to make a group of four with Pidge, Aurora and Hunk but Aurora had been seperated from them when it was found out that someone hadn't paired up with anyone. Ryan Kinkade.

"He seems like a nice guy. I don't know why nobody approached him or why he didn't just go up to someone."

"Because Kinkade isn't like that." Pidge said.

"Rubbish." Aurora said, making Hunk snicker. "He looks like a wonderfully nice boy."

"Why are you talking all... British?" Lance asked.

"Too much Doctor Who. Parker and I watch it when we're high sometimes." Aurora said getting up as she finished gathering all her things. "Now, I'll see you three lovelies later. I'm of to go make a new friend." Aurora said with a smile.

"Good luck." Said Lance. Aurora smiled and happily headed towards Kinkade.

* * *

"Hi. I don't think we've really met before. I'm Aurora Del la Cruz." Kinkade nodded.

"I know. You're friends with Rizavi." Kinkade said "And McClain, Holt, Tua, and Kogane. " Aurora smiled.

"Yeah and we should be friends too." Aurora said. Kinkade smirked a little.

"We'll see."

"Let's get started then." Aurora said, pulling out her Garrison issued textbooks. "What do we want to do our project on?"

"I think I have an idea."

Lance, Pidge and Hunk had made an outline, figured out what poster board they wanted and were just about ready to discuss who gets to talk the most and who gets to talk the least in the presentation when they all heard Aurora say,

"Yeah! High-five Ryan!" When they looked up they saw that aurora holding up her hand to the dark haired boy.

"Oh my god." Lance whispered. "Does she not realize who she's partners with? Kinkade would never..." he began to say to Pidge but much to his and everyone's amazement, Kinkade raised his hand and high-fived the energetic girl.

"Alright, I'm so glad we're partners." Aurora continued as Kinkade chuckled next to her. "You're so smart why don't you..." her voice was lost in the sea of other people talking and the three friends couldn't hear the rest.

"Did you see that?" Hunk asked.

"I did." Pidge said, not particularly interested in what was going on with her other friends.

"Kinkade always looks so serious. I can't believe she just got a high five from him." Pidge laughed.

"What? Kinkade? The guys a big doofus." Lance and Hunk gave her a funny look.

"What? No way." Hunk argued.

"We're in the same videography class and..."

"You take videography?" Lance interrupted. Pidge rolled her eyes.

"Yes Lance now hush." Lance mimed zipping his lips and Pidge continued. "Anyways, he's a big dork about cameras and likes to record things. I went in the video lab once to work on an assignment and Kinkade was the only one in there. He hadn't heard me come in apparently, headphones on and everything and when I went over to him like thirty minutes later to ask for help, I scared him so badly he fell out of his seat and onto the floor."

"Are you serious right now?" Lance asked, imagining 6 foot tall Kinkade being scared by a five foot tall Pidge. She nodded.

"Yup and when he saw it was me he just laid there and said, _'A munchkin just scared me shitless.'_ I laughed for like five minutes."

"Why are we just hearing about this?" Hunk said. Pidge shrugged.

"I don't know. We've never had a conversation about Kinkade before now." Pidge said before going back to their work. "What we should really discuss is... Keith." Lance looked at Pidge and waited for her to keep going but Pidge's plan was to let Lance say something first.

"What about him?"

"He's been jittery around us ever since the weekend." Hunk said.

"No he hasn't." Lance argued, at least, he hadn't noticed something off about Keith.

"Well, Parker did say Keith keeps asking him about that strain of weed used for relaxation. He's plowed through most of what Parker has in his stash. So something is bothering the boy." Hunk said. Lance frowned. He hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. But well, his family was always saying he was oblivious.

"Well, as Keith's best friend, I'll talk to him."

"I thought Aurora was his best friend." Pidge said.

"Or Parker." Hunk continued. "You didn't even really like him up until..."

* * *

"Hey! They said you'd be up here." A voice called out to Keith. He turned around to find Lance walking toward him, shielding his eyes from the setting sun.

"Hey Lance." Keith said nervously, wondering if he should stop smoking. He didn't know if it bothered Lance or not. Keith got of the barrier for the roof as Lance came to stand in front of him. "What's up?"

"Our friends seem to think you're in a funk." Keith wouldn't call it that necessarily but yeah, he had felt a little weird recently.

"I guess.. I don't know." Keith said, not wanting to admit anything. It was Lance's fault anyways. He made Keith feel all weird inside. Like Keith needed Lance or something, not just wanted to be with him but _needed_ to be with him. Keith didn't like how that sounded or felt.

"Well, if somethings wrong you know you can tell me right?" Keith nodded, flicking the ashes of the joint into the wind and checking to make sure it hadn't died out in his hand.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks Lance." Lance smiled a little and grabbed Keith's hand. Keith stopped breathing but Lance was only pulling the joint out of his fingers. Keith exhaled slowly as he watched Lance put it to his lips and inhale. "You've smoked before?" Lance nodded.

"Once with my brothers." But he was doing it so smoothly, it made Keith think that Lance just looked cool doing everything. "You're coming home with me for Thanksgiving right?" Keith shrugged.

"I don't know Lance. I'll really just be fine here on my own at base. Adam can't cook for shit so he'll be here too having the cook's legendary turkey stew." Lance wrinkled his nose.

"No, thats not thanksgiving. You're coming home with me and that's final." Keith shook his head.

"Lance..."

"I already told my family. You don't want to make me a liar do you?" Lance asked, putting the joint to his lips again. Keith stared at him surprised. Why was Lance being so adamant? Had he really told his family already? "Come on Keith. Come to my house." Keith looked down and took the joint back from Lance, only just so their hands could touch again.

"Okay Lance, okay." Keith took a drag from the joint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunk's last name is now Tua I don't make the rules lol.


	19. And Won't Come Down

"Keith you idiot." Lance said, ruffling Keith's hair to mess it up.

"Hey! It takes forever for me to get my hair to look like this!" Keith complained, swatting Lance's hands away.

"What? Like a stupid mess?" Lance said, continuing to mess it up, running his hands through it and dragging Keith's bangs down his face to cover his eyes. Keith just sat there on his bed, frowning at Lance, hardly seeing him through his dark, messy hair. Lance started to laugh hysterically. "You look great! Hold on." Lance grabbed his phone from the dresser and quickly opened the camera app, snapping a photo of Keith.

"Hey! Did you just take a picture?" Keith demanded, brushing his hair back over his forehead, straightening it back out for the most part.

"Yup." Lance said showing Keith the screen with Keith's stupid face on it.

"I'm deleting it." Keith said, reaching for the phone but Lance stood up and backed away.

"No way! This is blackmail. I'm going to use this against you later." Keith stood too.

"Lance McClain don't you dare."

"Try and stop me Keith." Keith half glared at Lance as they began to circle each other around Lance's room and before Lance could react fast enough, Keith tackled him to the ground and grabbed his phone as he sat on Lance's stomach.

"Ha!" Keith shouted, deleting the photo with a triumphant smile before looking down at Lance. "It's gone."

"Alright, alright Keith now can you get off of me please." Lance said, rolling his eyes at the boy above him. Keith blushed.

"Oh yeah, sorry." Keith stood and held out his hand to Lance who took it. Keith helped pull him up off of the ground and when he was finally standing, Keith tried to let go of Lance's hand but he wouldn't let him.

"I told you you'd have fun here with me." Lance said, a stupid grin on his face. Keith rolled his eyes. "I'm a fun person." Lance leaned in and kissed Keith's cheek and Keith stared at him in complete surprise.

"Lance?" Keith said, his breath catching in his throat.

"Oh shut up Kogane." Lance said before he leaned in and kissed him, his left hand on Keith's cheek. Keith dropped Lance's phone and it fell to the carpet with a thud. "That better not be broken Keith." Lance murmured. "Now are you going to kiss me or not?" Lance said, cupping his face in his hands.

"Yes." Keith breathed out. Lance smiled and leaned back in.

Keith woke with a start, clutching at his chest where his heart was beating rapidly. He looked around wildly toward Lance's bed where Lance was still fast asleep and then at the digital clock on Lance's nightstand. It was 2:36 in the morning and Keith heaved a sigh of relief. Everything had been a dream. It was all just a dream. In a couple of hours it would be Thanksgiving and in two days they'd be back at the Garrison.

Keith collapsed back onto his pile of blankets and pillows on Lance's bedroom floor. Something similar to his dream had just happened several hours ago but Lance actually deleted the picture himself instead of making Keith fight him for his phone. Had Keith's subconscious concocted up this scenario just to fuck with him? If it had, Keith was pretty pissed off about it.

* * *

"Lance!" Lance paused his conversation with Keith and looked towards his mom. "Pregúntale a tu novio si quiere más tamales." She said, hefting up the plate to show him while the rest of Lance's family laughed.

"¡Mamá!" Lance groaned, blushing red. "El no es mi novio. No digas cosas así." Lance looked back at Keith sheepishly. "Do you want more tamales?" Keith shrugged.

"Yeah sure."

"Oh good!" Lance's mom exclaimed, getting up and personally walking the plate of food too him. "You're too skinny Keith and too pale. You need to sit out in the sun more. We live in the desert. How do you have such a fair complexion."

"Mamá, no lo molestes por favor." Lance begged lightly. She rolled her eyes at her son as Keith said,

"Thanks Mrs. McClain and I'm not sure actually. I guess I don't get out much." Lance felt his sister nudge him on his left side and Lance glanced over at her as Veronica leaned in.

"En serio, es tu novio, ¿verdad?" Lance hushed her and Veronica snickered, going back to her food.

"What has your family been teasing you about all night?" Keith asked lightly. Lance looked at him.

"What? What makes you think they're teasing me?" Keith shrugged.

"I don't know. They all laugh and you groan and use your complaining voice." Lance scoffed.

"I don't have a complaining voice." Keith grinned.

"You're using it right now." Lance hit Keith's arm.

"Shut up. I invite you to my house, you eat my moms food, you sleep in my room and yet you still make fun of me." Lance said. Keith laughed, putting his hand on Lance's shoulder.

"It's because you're just _so_ easy to make fun of." Lance laughed and Keith dropped his hand. Lance thought that was the end of it but then he felt Keith's hand slip down into his own. Keith laced their fingers together and Lance's heart nearly stopped. Lance found himself squeezing Keith's hand and Lance watched him smile happily.

Lance jolted up in bed and immediately looked at Keith. He was still fast asleep on the floor, hugging Lance's second favorite pillow to his chest. His hair was falling in his face a bit messily and he was still fully buried under blankets. Lance looked at the digital clock next. It was 6:45 in the morning. In a couple hours, him, his family and Keith would be around the table eating a ton of food. Why would Lance dream about that? More specifically, why had he dreamed about holding hands with Keith?

* * *

"Stop cheating." Lance grumbled, half shoving Keith. Keith laughed, rocking back into position.

"You only think I'm cheating because I'm winning." Keith said with a grin. Lance frowned a little. He still felt weird about the dream he had last night. He couldn't get it out of his head.

"Boys! You're not going to make us do everything are you?" A voice demanded from the door. Lance groaned.

"Rachel, go away." Lance complained. Keith snickered.

"He's such a bad brother isn't he Keith?" Rachel said opening the door, not listening to Lance.

"Oh yeah, he's the worst."

"Keith Francis Kogane, I swear..." He scoffed and looked at his sister "¡Déjanos solos Rachel!"

"Deja de quejarte y ven a ayudarnos." She snapped back at him before smiling sweetly at Keith. "You'll come help won't you Keith." Lance half glared at his sister before turning to look at Keith.

"Yeah, I'll help." He was already beginning to stand. Rachel snickered as Lance flopped onto his floor.

"¡Oh Dios mío Keith!" He shouted at the ceiling. Keith kicked his arm a little.

"Oh just get up. Isn't Thanksgiving about family? We've been in your room for like eight hours straight." Rachel grinned at Keith and winked at him before walking away, leaving the bedroom door open.

"Yeah and we've been having fun." Lance said with a frown, staring up at Keith. Even from this angle he still looked stupidly hot. Lance almost blushed for thinking that but he could see why Jillian and several other girls were infatuated with Keith.

"Are you trying to keep me all to yourself?" Keith teased, feeling a little daring at the moment. Lance sat up so Keith wouldn't see him blush.

"Tu vas a ser la muerte de mi." Lance grumbled under his breath as he began to save their progress and shut down the gaming system.

"What was that?" Keith asked, feeling a bit nervous about his flirtatious jab.

"Nothing, come on dude." Lance said, standing and putting his hand on Keith's shoulder, turning him to face the door. Keith bit down on his bottom lip as the entered the hallway. Even from Lance's room, the noise his family was making had reached them. Keith had only really talked to two of his siblings Rachel and Veronica and Lance's father when he first arrived but not really anybody else. Mrs. McClain was a whirlwind of activity, giving orders to her kids in Spanish, helping out her elderly mother and she was constantly cleaning or cooking something. The most Keith had interacted with her was when she kissed his forehead as a greeting and when she asked him if he would be okay sleeping in Lance's room.

"He's a slob. I tell him to clean his room all the time and he never listens."

"Mama!" Lance had complained but Keith just laughed.

"Relax dude my family's cool." Lance said, nudging Keith who had become very obviously nervous as they entered the living room.

"I know I just... I don't want to answer questions about my family you know?" Keith said glancing back at Lance skeptically.

"Do you want me to tell them not to?" Keith shrugged. "It's fine Keith, my family isn't very nosy. Well... Nadia and Sylvio are but they're like 10 years old." On cue, Lance's niece and nephew ran up to them.

"¡Lance! ¡Dónde has estado!

"¡Te extrañé!" They both shouted at once.

"Yo estaba en mi habitacion." Lance said, bending down so Nadia could climb onto his back. "¿Por qué no viniste a saludar?"

"La abuela dijo que no te molestara ni a ti ni a tu amiga." Sylvio said, gesturing to Keith. Lance looked at him and Keith had a weird look on his face. Lance laughed.

"He can't understand us kids so let's just speak english."

"Are you Lance's best friend?" Nadia asked, nudging Keith's shoulder while somehow still clinging onto Lance.

"No! Papa said he's Lance's boyfriend." Sylvio said so loudly, Keith swore that the whole neighborhood could hear. Lance's head snapped around to the dining room.

"Marco! ¿Qué demonios dijiste sobre Keith y yo?" Lance demanded. Keith was blushing so hard he thought he might melt. Marco was laughing.

"Relájate hermanito." He said motioning for Lance to calm down. "Mis hijos me entendieron mal." Marco glanced at Keith and switched to english for his sake. "I was telling abuela about how you had a friend over and she asked if it was a girlfriend and I said _"No it's boy."_ Alright?" Lance ground his teeth, unsure if he should believe him or not.

"So you're not dating?" Nadia said. The half of Lance's family that was listening to the conversation laughed.

"No." Lance said, setting Nadia on the ground. Nadia looked at Keith curiously who was having trouble keeping his composure under the little girls gaze.

"Can I date him? He's cute. I like his hair." Keith started to laugh loudly and nervously.

"What! Keith? No, no, no, no, no no. No way little girl. First of all you're too young. Secondly, he's too old. Thirdly, his hair is dumb. Fourthly he's not even that cute and..."

"Don't be mean Lance just because you're jealous." Nadia said, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you don't want to date him I will."

"Do you even know what dating means!" Lance exclaimed. "You're not dating Keith. You're too good for him." Lance scolded.

"He has a point there." Keith said. "I am too old for you." Nadia frowned.

"Well when I'm older can I date you?" Keith wanted to tell her no but he wasn't about to come out to Lance and his entire family so he did something stupid and said,

"Yeah sure, why not."

"Keith!" Lance exclaimed as Nadia cried out in joy and bounded over to the kitchen to tell her mom.

"What? She's not going to actually want to date me. It's like you said, I'm not that cute." Keith said while looking terribly cute to Lance.

"Yeah, it's like I said. Not that cute." Lance said, clearing his throat and turning red as he turned away from Keith. "¡Mamá! ¿Necesitas ayuda?" His mom stuck her head out of the kitchen.

"I thought you'd never ask mi amor."


	20. Classroom Disasters

"So, how did it go with Lance?" Keith felt like he was in a therapists office with the way Adam was talking to him so gently and enthusiastically.

"What do you mean?" Keith asked nervously. Adam half rolled his eyes.

"You went to his house Keith. Did you two not talk at all like I suggested." Keith fidgeted nervously in his seat.

"We talked."

"Okay but I meant about your feelings Keith, not everything else under the sun." Keith sighed. He had meant to talk to Lance when they were alone which actually happened quite often but when they were alone, Keith was too scared to say anything.

"No. I never got the chance. I didn't know how to say it or what to say." Keith stood up nervously as Adam leaned back in his seat. "He just... I don't know. He's so easy to talk to but when I tried to bring up how I feel I just... Couldn't." Adam smiled.

"I was the same way with Shrio." Keith gave him a funny look.

"Shut up no you weren't. You were the one who said I love you first, Shiro told me." Keith rolled his eyes and Adam laughed.

"Yeah but do you know how long I had wanted to say that?" Keith shrugged. "For like three years." Keith snorted.

"What? You've only been dating for..." Keith paused. Shiro and Adam have only been together for a year and a half. "You've loved Shrio since before you were together?" Adam nodded.

"Yeah I mean, he was my best friend, my flight partner. It's hard not to have a crush on that man." Adam admitted, trying not to blush in front of Keith. Keith snorted.

"Ew gross." Keith said rolling his eyes. "Shiro is such a idiot. I never liked him, not even once I realized _I_ was gay." Adam laughed.

"Really? Damn, maybe it's just me then." Keith laughed.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. Though.. I do know a lot of girls who think he's pretty hot." Adam smirked.

"Well you tell them that he's all mine." Keith grinned.

"Will do Captain Whitney." They smiled at each other.

"Anyways Keith, I think you really do need to admit your feelings to him at some point. If I hadn't waited for two years to try to find the best way to tell Shiro that I loved him, then we would've been together a lot sooner, probably even married by now." Keith smiled at the thought. "I thought Shiro was straight Keith and that's what you're assuming about Lance right now but you'll never figure out if he really is or not if you don't talk to him."

"I know, I know.. God why do you have to be right?" Keith grumbled, sitting back down into the chair by his desk.

"Because I'm an adult."

* * *

Hunk and Pidge were staring at me like I was crazy and maybe I kind of was. This was, after all, a last ditch effort. "I thought you gave up on this Lance. Aurora doesn't like you. She actually seems to be kind of into my brother." Pidge said, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, yeah the two of them talk through you every now and then but Matt is thousands of miles away. I'm right here." Hunk sighed and sat back in his chair.

"Buddy, we've been over this. Aurora's just not that into you."

"You haven't even heard my plan to impress her yet!" Lance argued.

"It's a stupid one." Pidge and Hunk said simultaneously. Lance scoffed.

"Lance, seriously. You're going to take away one of the only girls in this world that's into my brother? He doesn't get this many opportunities." Pidge said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Neither do I!" Lance exclaimed.

"Hey guys." A voice said behind them. The trio turned to find Keith walking their way. He paused though when he saw the looks on their faces. "Umm.. Is everything okay?" Lance huffed, not wanting to talk about his plan in front of Keith. Grinding his teeth he grabbed up his backpack.

"I'll talk to you guys later. See ya Keith." Keith's heart fell a little as Lance walked away without even looking at him. He had come over her to ask if Lance wanted to go to the roof but.. Lance didn't seem in he mood to talk.

"Is he okay?" Keith asked, moving towards the table where Hunk and Pidge still sat. They both sighed heavily.

"He's concocted some sort of plan to win Aurora's heart and we tried to talk him out of it again." Hunk said. Keith hoped he didn't look like his heart had just shattered a little.

"I thought he was over her." Keith said slowly, hoping his vice wouldn't break.

"We thought so too." Pidge said. "But ever since Thanksgiving he's been a little weird." Pidge said, pursing her lips. Lance hadn't actually talked about Aurora in a while. Most of the time now he actually brought up Keith or homework or teachers, nothing about Aurora unless she was planning something for all of them to do together.

"Yeah he's just been acting funny." Hunk said with a shrug. "Hopefully he doesn't go through with whatever dumb plan he has." Keith nodded, wanting to get away from the conversation as fast as possible.

"Yeah lets hope. Um.. I'll see you guys later. I just remembered I have to go talk to Adam." Keith said, even though he had just come from Adam's office.

"See ya Keith!"

"Bye Keith." Hunk and Pidge said. Pidge waved goodbye and Keith half smiled as he tried to get out of the lounge as fast as possible.

* * *

The subject Lance hated the most, was science, especially chemistry. He thought that when he got to the Garrison, certain subjects would no longer be relevant to their lives like math and science and junk like that but that wasn't the case. Before, chemistry used to be a pain in Lance's ass, especially since Keith was in the class and up until recently, Aurora had been his partner. But Lance suddenly occupied that position when Aurora skipped three classes straight. Aurora was now partners with Kinkade and promptly came to class everyday because of it. Before, Lance didn't mind this arrangement. Keith and him were both clueless when it came to chemistry so they were usually lost together but now, every time Lance saw Aurora and Kinkade laughing together, a pang of jealousy washed through him.

"Hey, you okay buddy?" Keith asked, sitting down at their lab table. Lance sighed and turned around in his seat so he was now facing the front of the room.

"Yeah, I'm good." Lance's plan was, he had to admit it, kind of stupid and wouldn't work if Aurora wasn't paying attention to him which he doubted she would be. He just wanted to impress her in chemistry. He wanted to show her he was just as smart as Kinkade when it came to this science stuff but who was he kidding? He was horrible at it.

"Well today should be fun right? You've always liked mixing chemicals in beakers." Keith said, trying to get Lance to sit up and smile. He was slumped dangerously low on his chair and Keith was half afraid he might fall off. Lance pursed his lips. He did always like when they did experiments.

"Yeah we'll see." Keith sighed at Lance's indifferent tone. He hadn't been able to get Lance to smile in days. What had happened? Had Keith said something wrong? Why was he suddenly so hooked on Aurora again? Keith had thought...

"Okay class, listen up." Lance straightened up and pretended to be paying attention as Professor Muller talked. He hoped that Keith was writing notes and remembering all of the instructions. After ten minutes of going over rules and safety guidelines, Professor Muller finally said, "Alright get to work." Lance turned toward Keith.

"I wasn't paying attention. What are we doing?" Keith laughed.

"It's okay, I've got you." Keith smiled happily but Lance didn't return it. He'd felt weird around Keith the past few days and he wasn't sure why exactly. He hoped he wasn't being an asshole or anything but he probably was. Keith tossed him some goggles, pulling his own over his head and tightening the strap.

"Kogane you should keep your hair out of your face." Professor Muller called out.

"I will." Keith called back, pulling the bobby pins off of his uniform pocket. Aurora had stuck them there when they first became lab partners and started doing experiments. She had jokingly said he should use them all the time to keep his hair out of his eyes and surprisingly, Keith did. Whenever he was reading or doing homework in his room at his desk, sometimes he liked having his hair out of his face. The bobby pins especially came in handy during chemistry.

Lance watched Keith pin back his hair and wondered how Keith had gotten so good at it. Bobby pins were an enigma to Lance. Whenever he saw his sisters use them, it confused him. How could a thin piece of metal, hold back your hair when it's anchored by other pieces of your hair? That never made sense to Lance.

"You ready to do everything I say?" Keith asked jokingly, securing the last piece of his hair in place. Lance wrinkled his nose.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I'm going to ask for something and you're going to hand it to me since you decided not to pay attention." Keith said, punching Lance's arm lightly.

"Alright but I'm not going to fetch you coffee or anything." Keith snorted.

"You know I hate coffee."

"Tea, fine whatever you heathen." Lance said, rolling his eyes and smiling. Keith laughed.

"Hand me the vial of clear liquid." Keith said, turning on the bunsen burner. Lance looked towards the test tubes and picked out the clearest looking one. And so they continued, Keith asking for things and Lance handing them over but Lance was distracted. Aurora and Kinkade were at the desks right next to them and he kept glancing their way. He knew he shouldn't. He knew he should be listening to Keith ramble on about the science experiment, but Lance couldn't help it.

"Hey Lance can you..." Lance turned to look at Keith, barely hearing a word he said. His thoughts were swimming and his emotions felt... Fucked to say the least. What the hell was wrong with him? "You can do that right?" Keith asked. Lance snapped back to the present and stupidly said,

"Oh yeah, definitely." Keith smiled and stood up, heading towards Professor Muller to, Lance assumed, ask her a question. Lance suddenly didn't know what to do. What had Keith asked of him? Put something into the beaker bubbling away? Lance looked at the only two remaining liquids in the test tubes. One was red, the other blue. Lance picked up the blue one and dumped it into the beaker, only too late did he realize that everybody else's concoctions around him were red. "Shit." Lance cursed. The blue liquid was fizzing and bubbling, coming out of the beaker. This definitely wasn't supposed to happen. Acting on instinct, Lance grabbed the red liquid and dumped that in the beaker too, hoping the red would somehow mask the blue. But Lance should have known better. Red and blue makes purple.

"Lance, what did you do?" Keith whispered harshly, walking back to their table and staring at the ominously bubbling liquid in the beaker as it started to spill over the glass rim. "Why is it purple?"

"I uhh.. I don't know. I didn't hear what you said when you got up and when I poured in the blue liquid it started fizzing so I put in the red one because that's not the color everyone else had and..."

"Lance are you nuts? The whole thing could..." And before Keith could finish his sentence, a surprisingly loud **_BOOM_** filled the entire classroom and globs of sticky purple liquid flew up to the ceiling and rained down on the two friends, coating their uniforms, the floor, their table, and even hitting some of the people around them.

"What happ-" But before Professor Muller could continue Keith shouted,

"Lance!" Keith said, scraping the gooey substance off of his uniform with his hands and onto the floor, though he knew shouldn't. "Seriously!"

"I-I didn't mean to..."

"Yeah, you never really _mean_ to do something do you?" Keith demanded. "What was so important that you couldn't pay attention to what you were doing?" He asked, though Keith already knew the answer and it pissed him the hell off. Lance had probably been thinking about Aurora. He had been glancing over at her table all class, not listening to Keith at all and it upset him more than he wanted to admit.

"Keith.." Lance said feeling like the biggest idiot in the world.

"Save it. I don't want to hear it." Keith snapped at him and without being dismissed by the teacher, Keith stormed out of the room and down the hallway. The entire classroom was silent. Lance couldn't figure out why he felt like crying right now. He hadn't meant to cause a mess but why was Keith so upset and why did hearing Keith yell at him make Lance feel like there was a ton of bricks on his chest?

"Are you.. Are you okay Lance?" Aurora was standing behind him, that much Lance knew but he didn't even want to look at her right now.

"I'm fine." He said before standing and heading out of the room as well, slipping in the purple goo a little. He knew he should stay and help clean up but right now all, he wanted to do was go to his room and cry.


	21. Don't

_Lancey-Lance_   
_Hey... Can we talk?_

**Keithy**   
**About what.**

_Lancey-Lance_   
_I'll be on the roof if you want to_ _come meet me_ _..._

Keith rolled his eyes at Lance's cryptic message. They hadn't spoken in two days which was fine because they didn't have that many classes together and Keith always ignored him in chemistry when he talked but now that it was the weekend, Keith was bored out of his mind. He had purposefully declined Aurora's offer to hang out with her and everyone else at the mall tonight because he knew Lance would be there and he didn't want to talk to him. Keith couldn't figure out why he was being so stubborn. It really had been an accident, but Keith resented Lance for liking Aurora and resented Aurora for being the center of Lance's attention. Why couldn't Lance look at him the same way he looked at Aurora?

"What's up with you?" Harlow asked as Keith sighed for the fifth time in a row. "Get into a fight with your boyfriend?" Keith shot up on his bed to half glare at Harlow.

"Lance isn't my boyfriend." Keith had never told him about his sexuality and it kind of scared Keith to do so because what if Harlow didn't want to room with him anymore? Harlow was smirking.

"I never said his name." Keith fumbled for a sarcastic reply but nothing came out. "You do like him though right? That's why you got all pissed at him in Chem?" Keith had forgotten that Harlow was in that class too. He was always so focused on Lance.

"N-no.. Psh.. I..." Keith said, trying to think of something more coherent to say. But Russel was smiling at him so nicely and Keith felt so suffocated that he dropped his head into his hands and said, "How did you know?"

"The way you talk about him like he's the best thing to ever walk this earth." Keith groaned and flopped down onto his back. He hadn't realized he did that.

"He just texted me, wants me to talk to him."

"So go." Russel said. "It won't hurt to talk to him." Keith wrinkled his nose, frowning.

"I don't want to." Keith grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah because you're a stubborn bitch but come on Keith, I doubt you can stay mad at him forever." He had a point there. Keith sat up on his bed.

"You're not weirded out that I like..." Keith paused, not wanting to finish the sentence. Harlow shook his head.

"Naw, my older sister is gay. I know it's not the same thing but, I learned at a pretty young age that it doesn't matter who you love, as long as you love them." Keith blushed red.

"Thanks Russel." Keith said with a smile, grabbing his jacket off his bed and shrugging it on.

"No problem dude, go get your man back." Harlow said, turning back around in his seat. Keith rolled his eyes.

"We're not dating." He said, heading for the door.

"Could've fooled me." The door slid shut behind Keith.

* * *

Keith climbed the last stair to the roof and saw that the door was currently being propped open by a piece of wood. Lance stood on the far end of the roof, watching the sunset. His shadow stretched all the way behind him, nearly touching the door. Keith licked his lips and started to walk towards Lance who turned when he felt someone staring at him. Lance sighed in relief upon seeing Keith, hands shoved in pockets of that stupid jacket he always wore. "Hey." Lance said softly as Keith stopped a couple feet from him.

"Hi." Keith said. Lance pursed his lips.

"I'm sorry for messing up our experiment Keith and for not paying attention when you told me to do something but... " Lance paused. He didn't want to piss Keith off any more than he already had but he needed to know. "But why did you get so mad at me? And yell at me in front of everyone. I know it was a stupid thing to do but the way you reacted..." Lance's voice trailed off because Keith wasn't even looking at him. He was staring at his shoes. Frankly, Keith didn't know what to say. Should he just admit his feelings now? Right now?

Naw.

"I don't know. I shouldn't have done it though and I'm sorry Lance." Keith finally looked up at Lance and watched his shoulders drop in relief. "It was stupid to get so pissed off like that but.. It was my favorite uniform." Lance snorted.

"The uniforms all look the same."

"Maybe but that one used to be Shiro's."

"Oh... Is it okay? It's not stained or anything is it?" Keith shook his head.

"No, it's fine. I went to the laundry room and immediately stripped it off. I freaked out one of the captains standing there in just my underwear and it was kind of embarrassing explaining what happened but.." Keith shrugged.

"That's good.." Lance paused. "Can we be friends again? Because it sucks not being able to talk to you." Keith's heart fluttered in his chest.

"We never stopped being friends." Keith held his hand out to Lance and he grinned, taking Keith's hand. They shook lightly, Lance running his thumb over the back of Keith's hand before he realized what he was doing, let go and cleared his throat.

"So yeah um.. Aurora said we should met up with her and the others once we were done "fighting" as she put it." Lance said, throwing up air quotes before shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "And we should go, they might be there already." Lance said, checking his watch. Walking towards the door, Lance grabbed Keith's sleeve lightly in an effort to get him to turn around but Keith felt a confession bubbling up out of him.

"Lance I have to tell you something." Keith said it so suddenly that Lance looked towards him a little startled.

"Okay, tell me on the way over there. We're late buddy." Lance said, tugging on Keith's sleeve again but he didn't budge.

"No I want to tell you right now before I loose the nerve." Lance gave Keith a funny look and let go of him.

"Loose the nerve to tell me what?" Keith opened his mouth but instead of saying something, he just groaned and covered his face with his hands. This was stupid. This was so stupid. He peeked at Lance through his gloved fingers and saw his stupid crooked smile and Keith's heart melted a little more. "What's up with you?" Lance asked with a laugh. Keith sighed and dropped his hands.

"I need you to be serious with me here for like five minutes okay?" Keith instructed. Lance cocked his head but nodded, waiting for him to go on. Keith's hair was blowing in the wind and he looked so solemn and stoic that Lance nearly cracked a grin again. Instead he pursued his lips and Keith became uneasy.

"Don't... Don't look at me like that." Keith said, turning away. Lance frowned.

"Look at you like what? You haven't even said anything to me yet Keith. You're making me worried." Lance said, reaching out to touch Keith's shoulder. "Whatever you want to tell me, I promise I won't make fun of you or anything. I'll be completely serious. Look at my serious face." Keith glanced back at Lance to see that Lance was pointing at himself. Keith smiled.

"Okay, okay. But no laughing please. I've only told two people this before. You're the third."

"Should I feel special." Lance joked.

"Shut up. Don't say anything until I tell you what it is okay?" Lance nodded and watched as Keith closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. Keith opened his eyes again.

"Lance, I'm gay." The silence that stretched between the two of them was killing Keith. Lance looked as serious as he had before Keith had said anything. He didn't look shocked or confused or disgusted. He just looked like... Lance. "Well say something!" Keith exclaimed, nervous bubbly energy building inside of him.

"Can I say something now?" Lance said, his heart pounding in his chest for whatever reason.

"Yes!" Keith pleaded.

"Oh well, I'm glad you told me Keith. I didn't know you liked me enough to tell me something so personal." Lance said with a sheepish smile. Keith exhaled slowly, his stomach still felt like it was twisted in knots.

"Of course I like you, we're friends." Keith said. He felt kind of out of breath, like he had run an entire marathon just now. Lance nodded.

"So are the other two people Aurora and Parker?" Lance asked. Keith felt a little embarrassed a he shook his head.

"Actually, you're the only friend of mine that knows." He admitted, kicking at the loose gravel on the ground. "The only two people who know are Shiro and Adam." and I guess Russel but I never told him, he just found out.

"Oh so I'm _really_ special then I guess." Lance said with a lopsided grin. Keith rolled his eyes a little.

"Shut up. I've been meaning to tell the others. I just get so nervous about it."

"How come? Aurora came out pretty easily to everyone." Keith shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Well she's Aurora and I'm... Me." Lance half smiled at Keith. He still looked sad and slightly distraught but Lance couldn't figure out why. "It's just.. I wanted to tell you because you're like my best friend Lance."

"I thought Aurora was." Lance said, arching an eyebrow at him but feeling happy all the same that Keith considered _him_ his best friend.

"Aurora's great and I love her a lot but I don't know... You're my co-pilot Lance. I wanted to tell you first." Lance's heart was thudding in his chest.

"Alright Captain bring it in." Lance said, opening his arms.

"What?" Keith said.

"What do you mean _what_? I'm going to hug you. Doesn't this feel like a hugging moment." Keith laughed a little, hoping he wasn't blushing.

"Yeah, okay." Keith walked forward and Lance wrapped his arms around Keith's shoulders. Keith's arms went around Lance's middle, under his jacket as he buried his face in Lance's shoulder. This is the closest they'd ever been before and Keith was going to savor every moment of it.

"You're my best friend too. Don't tell Hunk or Pidge." Keith laughed and pulled back. Lance left one hand on Keith's shoulder.

"Your secret's safe with me sharpshooter."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the first chapter of a Trio where Keith is finally "coming down"/coming out to his friends. It's like his first couple of steps to admitting to Lance that he likes him. So this one is titled Don't and I bet you can guess what the other two will be titled lol.


	22. Come

"Come on!" Rizavi shouted at the top of her lungs. "Last one in is a loser!" She exclaimed before jumping into the pool with a huge splash. This was immediately followed by several hoots of joy and several other splashes from the rest of Aurora's friends. Aurora meanwhile laughed on the sidelines as she went to kiss her fathers cheek who was working the barbecue grill.

"Thanks for letting me have this party dad."

"Of course. Anything for you honey." Aurora smiled and headed towards Hunk, Pidge, Keith and Lance who were still standing on the deck, towels on their shoulders. Aurora walked up with a grin.

"What are you guys arguing about?" Aurora asked with a laugh.

"Pidge and Keith don't want to get in the pool!" Lance exclaimed, gesturing to their friends.

"Why? You're wearing a swimsuit." Pidge was wearing a cute two piece with a lime green top and black shorts but she was also wearing an outrageously large sunset, sunglasses and carrying what looked like enough bottles of sunscreen for ten people. Keith was wearing red swim trunks and looked horribly pale under the sun and kept eyeing the patio covered deck every so often.

"Keith and I agreed to come but we never agreed to swim." Pidge said dismissively. "I burn quickly and I assume Keith does too." Keith nodded as Pidge flipped her long hair over her shoulder. "And anyways, I have some coding to do, a brother to talk to and a book to read. So if you don't mind..."

"Aurora." Lance complained, gesturing to Pidge as she walked away. Aurora laughed.

"I can't tell her what to do. Actually, I want to go talk to her brother. Hey Pidge! Do you remember the wi-fi?"

"And what's your excuse?" Hunk demanded of Keith. "Besides burning up under the sun like a vampire?" Keith ran one hand through his hair nervously.

"Actually... I can't swim." Lance gave Keith a funny look.

"What? Really?" Keith shrugged.

"I'm an orphan remember? My dad hadn't put me in swim classes yet and then at the orphanage... I never got the chance. Shiro has tried to teach me before but I get too embarrassed."

"I'll teach you. I'm a great swimmer." Lance said with a smile. Keith shrugged and licked his lips, looking off towards the pool where Rizavi, Leif, Kinkade and Griffin were about to start a chicken fight. Leif was on Rizavi's shoulders while Griffin was on Kinkades. Griffen didn't stand a chance against Leifsdottir. Lancaster, Carter, Prince, and several other people Keith couldn't remember the last names of were cheering them all on. Parker meanwhile was snickering from his seat on the steps of the pool, watching all the action. The water was churning fiercely with everyone moving about and it kind of made Keith's stomach sick.

"No, I'm good. The water freaks me out a little." Keith said, before heading towards Aurora and Pidge on the deck who were laughing at something.

"Oh come on Keith!" Lance complained but Keith didn't turn around.

"I should learn the code so I could just talk to him." Aurora was saying as Keith walked up.

"I did give you the book and the additions and subtractions necessary to figure it out." Pidge said before another message came in. Pidge giggled. "He said, _Happy Birthday from space_!" Aurora grinned.

"Tell him I said thanks." She glanced up as Keith sat down. "So why don't you want to get in the water?" She asked him.

"I can't swim." Aurora snapped her fingers.

"Oh yeah, I forget."

"McClain! Get your ass over here!" Lancaster shouted. Lance sighed, took one last glance at Keith sitting and talking with Aurora and Pidge before he walked towards the pool with Hunk.

"The two of you still talk?" Hunk asked, sitting down next to Parker in the water as Leif finally managed to knock Griffin off Kinkade's shoulders. Everyone cheered as Lance shrugged.

"Yeah, we're friends. She's really nice." Lance headed around the long side of the pool to get to Olivia. She and Paula Diaz were treading water at the deepest level of the pool. They swam to the rim as he walked over and put their arms up on the concrete.

"What's up?" Lance asked, half bending down to talk to them properly.

"Do one of those dives for us. You used to be a swimmer right?" Lance nodded and looked out at the pool.

"Yeah but, there's so many people in the pool. I don't want to dive in in the middle of everyone and then come up and hit someone or something."

"I can fix that." Olivia turned and let out a long, high pitched whistle that got everyone's attention. "Alright you hooligans, Lance is going to do a dive for us so quit swimming around for a little bit and take a seat or something!" She shouted once everyone was quiet. The noise level rose again as people excitedly moved out of the way and Lance blushed red. Keith turned around in his seat and felt a pang of jealousy seeing Lance talking to Lancaster with a stupid blushing grin on his face.

"Ha! Nothing will beat when he jumped into the pool that night of our sleepover." Aurora said. Pidge snickered.

"No it won't." She said. Keith agreed with them. Nothing would ever beat that image of Lance in his head.

"Go Lance!" Hunk cheered as Lancaster and Diaz swam to the other side of the pool. Lance laughed nervously and stretched out his limbs before getting into position. Everyone seemed to be holding their breaths as he dove. The water hardly made a sound. When Lance emerged, everyone was cheering and clapping for him, though he had hardly done a thing. Lancaster and Diaz swam back over and started congratulating him. Keith felt a surge of jealousy that made him stand up. Aurora and Pidge were still pre-occupied, talking to Matt and Shiro in space and wouldn't notice if he got up. Impulsively, Keith made his way over to the deep end of the pool where Lance was and slowly, got in.

Hearing the splash behind him, Lance glanced back and saw Keith. He looked slightly terrified and was gripping the concrete edge of the pool tightly with one hand. "Keith are you nuts?" Lance said, breaking away from his conversation with the two girls who grinned at each other and swam back over towards Jillian Carter, Diana Prince, and Russel Harlow.

"I'm going to take you up on your offer after all." Keith said, trying not to panic as he stared at the bottom of the pool far far bellow him. If Keith let go, he would drown. Lance laughed lightly.

"Okay Keith but... Did you have to get in over here? At the deepest end?" Keith took a deep breath and looked away.

"Don't remind me." Lance laughed and grabbed Keith's hand underwater. This simple gesture nearly made Keith let go of the edge and slip into the water. He would've been dead weight though, dragging both him and Lance to the bottom.

"Okay well come this way. There's a bench over here." Lance said, swimming off towards their right and tugging on Keith's hand. Keith followed slowly, clinging to the edge until they got to the bench. Lance let go of Keith's hand and sat down. Keith sat too, kind of wishing he was drowning right now just so Lance could save him. "You talk to Shiro?" Keith snorted.

"Yeah a little but he was acting like... Such a big brother, telling me to go see Adam every now and then, to eat all my vegetables and not pick fights with people." Keith rolled his eyes as Lance laughed.

"I've only met him once you know. I've always kind of looked up to him." Lance said, looking up into the cloudless, desert sky.

"Really? How come?" Keith said. Sure, he looked up to Shiro but Keith actually knew him. Lance shrugged.

"He's just so great at what he does you know? I want to be like that. I want to be a good pilot and prove all of our teachers wrong. I'm meant to be a fighter pilot, not a cargo one. I just know it." Lance said, a look of determination on his face.

"Of course you are." Keith said. "And you're going to be the best fighter pilot ever." Lance grinned.

"Even better than you Kogane?" He asked, splashing water at his friend." Keith smiled, the ends of his hair dripping wet. Lance felt his heart skip a beat as Keith ran his wet hands through his hair, slicking his hair back so that Lance could now see Keith's eyes properly. They were a deep purple.

"Yeah, even better than me McClain."

* * *

Lance spent the next fifteen minutes teaching Keith how to tread water so he wouldn't drown. Lance didn't think he was that good of a teacher but Keith was grasping the concept fairly well. Mostly because Keith wanted to impress Lance and not embarrass himself by drowning. Though, he still loved the notion of nearly drowning and making Lance give him mouth to mouth.

"Fall in line Cadets!" The loud booming voice of the Major General said. Immediately, a dozen Garrison kids jumped out of the pool and stood at attention, saluting Major General Korson. Everyone that is except for Parker, Aurora, Hunk, Pidge, Lance and Keith. Who knew better by now to not pay attention to him when he gave them commands at his house.

"Dad!" Aurora shouted at her father from the deck where she and Pidge were still sitting. "You're abusing your power!"

"I need order if I'm going to pass out food." He called back, a large grin on his face. "At ease Cadets. Who wants a hamburger?" Several hands shot up and Lance chuckled as he looked to Keith who seemed to be swimming perfectly on his own at the moment.

"You hungry dude?" Keith nodded. "What do you want?" Lance said, swimming to the edge of the pool and hauling himself out, water dripping everywhere. "I'll get it for you." Keith stared up at Lance in slight awe. Damn he looked hot right now.

"I uhhh.. I like hot dogs." Lance nodded.

"You got it bud." He said before walking away. Keith watched him move towards the barbecue and tried to shake away his thoughts as he swam towards the bench and got out of the pool that way. Shivering, he walked back over to Pidge and Aurora, grabbing up his towel.

"So you're letting Lance teach you to swim?" Aurora said, grinning at Keith slyly. Keith tried to pretend like it was no big deal.

"Yeah I mean, I have to learn sometime right?"

"Here you go my man." A voice said behind Keith. Lance handed Keith a plate with two hotdogs, ketchup was on both of them. "I didn't know if you wanted ketchup or mustard or not but I like ketchup so that's what I put." Keith hated ketchup but he smiled anyways.

"Thanks Lance."

"Um excuse me pretty boy but where is our food?" Aurora demanded, gesturing to herself and Pidge. Lance laughed.

"What do you two want?" He asked as everyone began to swarm the deck, sitting on the various chairs or on the floor if there was no room.

"Cheeseburger." Pidge said, not looking up from her computer as Hunk came and sat on the couch next to her.

"And get me a hamburger please." Aurora said. Lance finger gunned, nodding.

"You got it birthday girl." He handed his plate over to Keith who took it with a smile. As he walked away, Parker came and stood next to Keith.

"I thought you hate ketchup." Parker said, eyeing Keith's hotdogs funny.

"It's grown on me." Keith said. Aurora grinned mischievously.


	23. Down

"I think I like Lance." Keith blurted out. He wasn't sure what came over him but after confessing to Lance that he was gay, he knew he had to at least tell Aurora and Parker, his other two best friends. The best way to do that, was to just admit that he liked Lance. Aurora and Parker were looking at him funny, the smoke curling around them and drifting away in what little wind was blowing and nearly putting out the joint.

"Okay." Parker said.

"Okay? Just okay? You guys aren't surprised?" Keith said, exasperated. Why did everyone seem so cool with him being gay? He didn't think they _wouldn't_ be but.. He had spent so long being afraid of saying something that he kind of felt like that maybe they wouldn't accept him.

"Not really. I thought you kind of liked him." Aurora said with a shrug, putting the joint back to her lips. It had been a while since they had done this but the three of them all had major tests coming up in classes and Parker thought this was the best way to unwind, he was never wrong. Keith stared at her amazed.

"Yeah you weren't exactly being... Subtle these past couple of days, maybe even weeks." Parker said.

"Holy shit. Do you think Lance knows?" Keith asked, feeling like such an idiot. Aurora laughed, passing the joint off to Keith who clearly needed it. Keith put it to his lips and took a long drag as she replied.

"Lance? Hell no. He's about as observant as a brick wall. I wouldn't worry about him. Keith held his breath and slowly, exhaled, a calm feeling washing over him that was probably a product of the marijuana. 

"Okay so... What do I do?" Keith asked.

"Well, do you want to tell him or do you want to be a pussy?" Parker asked. Aurora hit his shoulder and Parker laughed. "Sorry, I just meant. Are you going to tell him or do we have to do it for you." Keith laughed nervously.

"What? Why would you guys tell him for me? That's stupid and no. I don't really want to tell him. I just wanted to tell you guys because... You're my best friends."

"We're your Hype people Keith as well as your friends and I think you should tell that idiotic boy how you feel." Keith laughed again, shaking his head and giving Parker the joint.

"Honestly I'd rather die." Parker snorted.

"That's dramatic." He said, taking a drag.

"It's true! I've spent this long crushing on him... And we've only _just_ become friends... I don't want to ruin this." Aurora arched an eyebrow at him and Keith knew he made a mistake.

"This long? What do you mean? You've liked him longer than a couple of weeks?" Keith groaned and ran his hands through his hair nervously.

"Come on dude, spill." Parker said, kicking Keith's foot.

"Fine!" Keith shouted, crossing his arms over his chest with a sigh. "I've liked Lance ever since we were... Junior Cadets." But Keith was grumbling under his breath so neither of them heard what he had said.

"Repeat that Fly Boy." Aurora said, cupping her hand over her ear a little teasingly. Keith huffed.

"I said I've liked Lance ever since we were Junior Cadets." Parker nearly dropped the joint. Aurora grabbed it from him before he could but she was just as surprised.

"How young were you?" Aurora asked. She was twelve when she was a junior cadet but people have enrolled younger than that even. Keith pursed his lips.

"Ten." Parker let out a low whistle.

"Really?" Aurora asked. "Damn Kogane And you've done nothing since then?"

"Okay first of all," Keith said, throwing his hands in the air. "I wasn't even really sure I liked him at first. He was kind of mean to me after our first encounter and..."

"What happened when you first met?" Parker said. "I was there. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary." Keith blushed red and started to pace back and forth in front of his friends.

"Okay if I tell you, you can't tell anyone else. I think Lance was really embarrassed by what happened." Keith said finally. Aurora grinned.

"Oh if it's embarrassing I might have a hard time keeping it to myself." Keith rolled his eyes at her as she laughed. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I have like six friends here. Who else would I tell?" She asked. Keith wanted to point out that she had more than six friends (clearly since at her party there was at least a dozen other people in attendance) but he just decided to get on with the story instead of arguing with her.

"When we were Cadets, Lance kind of... Flirted with me." Parker and Aurora started to crack up. "Shut up!" Keith exclaimed, red with embarrassment. He liked thinking back on the memory and had only ever recounted it to Shiro and Adam before now but honestly, it was a little embarrassing.

_"Shiro I don't have to go see all of them right now. I would honestly rather get my hair cut." Keith complained, looking up at the older guy next to him. Shiro laughed and ruffled Keith's long hair._

_"These people are going to be your friends Keith. Don't you want to meet them first?" Keith crossed his arms over his chest as they continued towards the airplane hanger that was currently being used as an orientation room._

_"Yeah well if Griffin is in there then I don't want to go." Shiro smiled at Keith and put his hand on Keith's shoulder._

_"I know you two don't get along but maybe that'll change once you get to know one another." Keith rolled his eyes at Shiro's optimism. He had known James Griffin since he was six when he transferred schools. There was no way a single summer had changed his attitude about anything. "And anyways, I need to talk to Iverson before we head to the bases barber." Keith huffed as Shiro took out his key card and opened the door for them._

_As it slid open, Keith stopped breathing for a second. There were so many kids. They were standing by the refreshment table, getting a tour of the latest fighter plane by Adam, horsing around in the middle of the room or talking along the edges of the room. Everywhere Keith looked, there was another new kid. He suddenly felt overwhelmed. He was horrible at names and faces and just about everything else that came with small talk and greeting other people._

_"Go ahead." Shiro said, lightly shoving Keith towards a group of people. Keith half glared at him but Shiro just smirked and headed towards Iverson and the other officers. Keith sighed and as soon as Shiro's back was turned, he decided to head for the nearest bathroom to wait this whole thing out. He didn't want to talk to anyone and he certainly wouldn't know what to say if someone did start talking to him. Keith crossed his arms over his chest and spotted Griffin immediately in a crowd of other people near the bathroom doors. Griffin was glaring at him, no surprise there. With_ _a_ _huff, Keith decided to go bother Adam, one of the only other people he knew in this room before someone said behind him,_

_"Do you have a Band Aid?" Keith was surprised by the question and slowly turned around. "Because I just scraped my knee falling for you." Keith blushed red, violet eyes wide as he stared at the boy talking to him. He was taller, Hispanic looking and had slightly curly hair. There were freckles across his cheekbones and nose and he had mischievous blue eyes. The smile the boy was wearing slowly dropped though and Keith felt his heart thumping wildly in his chest for some unknown reason. "Oh, you're a boy.. You look kind of like..." Keith watched him blush all the way to his ears._

_"It's the hair." Keith said a bit self-consciously, touching the long strands behind his head. "I'm going to get it cut soon." He wasn't exactly sure what had just happened. Had this boy... Used a pick up line on him? Why?_

_"Cool. That's cool." He said, looking around nervously like he was trying to find the closest exit to escape this conversation but Keith wasn't about to let him leave without getting his name._

_"I'm Keith." He said, sticking out his hand. The boy looked down at it and then back up at him._

_"Lance." He said and shook Keith's hand quickly before he started backpedaling away. "I'm gonna go talk to my roommate. See you around." Keith couldn't even get out a reply before Lance ran away. Moments later, Shiro approached._

_"Did you even talk to someone Keith?" He asked, sounding a little disappointed. Keith had just been standing in the middle of the room, staring off into space but he smiled immediately up at Shiro._

_"Yeah actually, his name is Lance." Shiro was surprised._

_"Alright, Good. Did you find your roommate? His name is Russel Harlow." Keith blushed. He actually hadn't moved from his spot after Lance talked to him or flirted with him or whatever._

_"No I didn't find him." Shiro shrugged._

_"I'll introduce you two later. Let's go get your hair cut buddy."_

Aurora and Parker were staring at Keith in awe, eating up his story. But Keith had nothing more to say and they were disappointed. "That's it!" Aurora exclaimed. "He jut said some dumb pickup line and you caught feelings for that idiot?" Keith blushed hard, ears turning red.

"Okay whatever! I was young and Lance made me smile and he actually approached me and nobody did that when I was that age because everyone knew that I was some sad, angsty orphan boy." Keith said with a frown.

"Actually I think it might be because you were a little intimidating." Parker said.

"Me?" Keith said, confused.

"Yeah, him?" Aurora said, gesturing to Keith's face. "Look at him. I bet he was an adorable ten year old." Aurora said, squishing Keith's cheeks in her hands. Keith gave her a look and Aurora laughed, letting go.

"No it's true. He was intimidating. He knew Shiro and Captain Whitney and a lot of the other instructors on the base. He had a lot of protocol down already at ten years old when most of us were still fumbling and he was an amazing pilot, right from the beginning and everyone knew it. We all knew he would be top of the fighter pilot class some day." Keith stared at Parker in awe.

"They _all_ thought that?" Keith had always felt so alone, so outcasted. He didn't know not to talk to people and people didn't really talk to him. It's just the way his life had been since he had first joined the Garrison.

"Yeah and you had a resting bitch face at ten years old. It was scary." Aurora rolled her eyes.

"Regardless of all of that, I would've been your friend at ten years old! But I got here too late and we were all already separated into our three fields. I'd only seen Keith in passing up until we became a flight crew." Aurora said, patting Keith's hair lightly.

"Well anyways, the topic of our discussion is not Keith." Parker said taking the joint back from Aurora since it looked like it was bout to fizzle out in her hands. He took a drag before he spoke again. "It's Lance. Well, its about Lance and Keith and Keith's feelings for Lance and..."

"Alright alright stop saying it like that." Parker laughed.

"So come on buddy, are you going to tell him or shall I?" Aurora said dramatically, gesturing out with her arms.

"He's not into guys Aurora. I don't want to tell him." Aurora rolled her eyes.

"You don't know that. He could be. He seems very interested in you." Keith blushed red. That's what he thought too but... they're just friends. Nothing more.

"I'll think about telling him okay. I just wanted to tell you two that I'm gay and I have a small crush on Lance."

"You mean a gigantic crush." Parker corrected.

"A gigantic _gay_ crush on Lance!" Aurora squealed, jumping up and down and clapping. Parker laughed, smoke pouring out of his mouth. Keith held his hand out for the joint and Parker grinned.

"Finish it dude, you need it." Keith took a drag and breathed in deeply. Well, he had finally told his friends. Now what?


	24. Hang On

"I want to show you guys something." Keith said as he walked faster down the nearly vacant street. It was Saturday and Lance, Aurora, and Keith were hanging out together, technically they were procrastinating doing their homework, but they were hanging out all the same. The three friends had been walking around downtown, talking, eating ice cream and trying to stay cool but then Keith came up with some "grand idea" and he wouldn't tell either one of them what it was.

"Well don't go too fast it's hot and I'm tired." Aurora complained, fanning herself with her hand.

"Yeah Keith why are we walking to the middle of nowhere in this desert?" Keith laughed.

"It's not nowhere. Shiro and Adam live out here. It's not that far maybe another half mile or so." Lance and Aurora groaned and Keith grinned. They couldn't see the house yet but once they did they would feel a little better. Not that they would be going in that is. Shiro wasn't home, obviously, and Adam was at the Garisson. They wouldn't be going inside, not that Lance and Aurora knew that.

"Well why are we walking to their house!" Aurora complained again, tying up her long hair, feeling sweat drip down her neck. Lance looked over at her and almost sighed. She still looked pretty even when she was flustered.

"Because I want to show you guys something." Keith reiterates.

"Can't you tell us buddy?" Lance asked. "Or at least tell me. I won't tell Aurora." Aurora hit him.

"Shut up Lance. Keith loves _me_ more than he loves you. If he's not telling me then he's not gonna tell you." Keith tried not to blush because both he and Aurora knew that was a bit of a lie.

"I'll have you know that Keith told me first that he was gay and not you so I think he trusts me a little more than he trusts you." Keith hit the heel of his hand against his forehead. After coming out to Aurora and Parker, he had finally worked up the nerve to tell Pidge and Hunk and now their whole friend group was in on his little secret and somehow it was brought up that Lance found out first which shocked everyone else in the group.

"Lance knew first!" Aurora had shouted, standing up in the common room dramatically and slamming her hands on the table, half leaning towards Keith with a menacing glare. "How dare you Keith Kogane. I thought _I_ was your best friend."

"You are!" Keith had shouted. "It was kind of an accident when I told Lance."

"Hey! No it wasn't! You purposefully told me when we made up after our last fight." Lance had argued, nudging Keith who was now blushing hard.

"Okay, okay I purposefully told him but I had just had a discussion with Adam not too long ago about coming out and Lance and I were having a heart to heart. It felt like a good time. I had literally just told Harlow right before we met up and..."

"Russel knew before us!" Aurora cried out, flopping back down into her seat exasperated. "My god, our friendship is a sham! A sham Parker!" She exclaimed, grabbing the other boy's uniform and shaking him gently. Parker waved her hand away and Aurora dramatically slumped down onto the table, head in her arms.

"Okay, okay stop with the dramatics. You're as bad as Lance." Hunk said, poking Aurora's arm.

"I resent that." Lance said. "I'm not _that_ dramatic."

"You're _both_ a pain in my ass." Keith interrupted, his friends who were still arguing over who is best friends with Keith, Lance or Aurora. The two of them laughed. "Now shut up and come on. I can see the house already."

"Are we going to go inside?" Aurora asked. "It's hot as fuck." Keith shook his head.

"No, sorry Adam is at the base." Lance groaned.

"And Shiro is up in space. We're going to die of heat exhaustion."

"Oh relax." Keith said, shaking his head at his friends. As Lance and Aurora complained some more, they finally came upon the house. It was modest, one story and a nice cream color with blue accents. Shiro and Adam had bought it together but weren't planning on staying there forever. They had both agreed a long time ago that it was way too small of a place to live, especially since there was only one bathroom.

Keith walked over to the gate and miraculously pulled a gate opener out a planter which he pointed at the gate so it would open for them. "Adam is always forgetting his keys." Keith said as Aurora and Lance gave him a funny look. "This was Shiro's solution and it also saved him the effort of getting up to open it if I ever decided to come over unannounced."

"And yet you don't have keys to heir place." Lance said with a frown, pushing back his hair across his forehead. He hated the way sweat made it stick to his skin.

"Nope." Keith said with a shrug.

"Well what are we doing here then Keith?" Aurora complained. Keith motioned for them to follow him around back, to a covered awning. They passed Shiro's car, a sheet had been draped over it to protect it from the elements but there was also a smaller, covered vehicle directly in front of it. Keith went and stood next to it proudly.

"You wanted to show us their cars?" Lance said with a heavy sigh.

"This is actually mine." Keith said, patting the covering lightly, dust and dirt flying off.

"Well show us your tricycle already you idiot so we can go back to the base." Aurora said with a huff. Keith smirked.

"Ta-da!" Keith said, pulling the sheet off and exposing his red and white hoverbike. Aurora and Lance immediately straightened up, surprised.

"What the hell. I haven't seen one of these in ages. Where did you get it!" Aurora exclaimed. "It looks vintage."

"It was my dad's actually." Keith said, touching the handles lightly and running his hand over the chipping body paint. Aurora and Lance shared a look, telling each other to tread lightly.

"And they just let a six year old keep a hoverbike at the orphanage?" Lance said. Keith laughed and shook his head.

"Oh hell no. Though I did try to fight them on it. Actually up until I was 15, it had been with one of my dad's firefighter buddies. He kept it for me in his garage, tinkering with it every now and then and taking it out for a ride whenever I came around." Keith said, feeling nostalgic. "So yeah, it is pretty old but it still runs great."

"Sooo..." Aurora said. "Are you going to take us for a ride?" She asked excitedly. Keith grinned.

"I didn't drag you guys all the way out here for nothing."

"Woohoo!" Aurora exclaimed jumping up. "Let's go. I call going first!" She said, half shoving Lance.

"Umm is it even safe. Do you need a license for one of these things?" Lance said cautiously.

"Why? Scared McClain?" Lance was having a de ja vu as he stared at Keith and tried not to blush.

"Oh hell no I'm just... I don't know. I've never ridden one." Lance shrugged.

"Really?" Aurora asked. "There was this boy back at the Seattle Garrison who had one and he always took me for a ride on it. He thought I was pretty." She said with a grin.

"Well this is like one of the first times I'm seeing one up close." Lance said, pursing his lips. The leather seats were worn and honestly it looked broken seeing as it wasn't hovering at the moment but that's because the engine wasn't on.

"Don't worry Lance. I won't let you fall." Keith said with a smile. Aurora wanted to make a gay joke but she bit her tongue to prevent herself from doing so.

"Let's go Keith please." Aurora begged, grabbing Keith's hand. "Where are the keys?" Keith turned and again, produced a set of keys from a flower pot. He turned he key in the ignition and the bike immediately came to life with a roar, rising off the ground and hovering above it a foot or two. Keith grabbed the helmets from a covered box under the awning and handed one to Aurora, placing the red one down over his head before he walked the bike over to the gate and got on, his friends trailing behind him.

Aurora squealed as she hoped onto the bike behind him and pulled the blue helmet down over her head. She flipped the visor up and smiled at Lance. "Don't look so stressed Lance. It's so much fun I swear. Where we heading Keith?" Aurora asked, wrapping her arms tightly around his middle. Lance swallowed hard. Would he have to do that too? Keith revved the engine and flipped up his own visor, glancing back at his friends.

"Maybe about a mile or so and then back so Lance doesn't think too hard about getting on it." Keith's violet eyes held a mischievous glint in them and he was smirking up a storm. Lance reddened slightly.

"Let's do it." Aurora flipped the visor down. "See you in a minute or two Lance." She said, her voice muffled by the helmet. Keith revved the engine again and then they took off like a shot down the empty road, Aurora screaming in delight the entire time.

Lance's heart was pounding in his chest. Was it the adrenaline coursing through his veins making it do that? Or the fact that in a couple of moments he would be the one on the back of Keith's bike. The thought kind of terrified him. Keith had gone so fast. Could the bike go slower? Was Keith trying to scare the shit out of him? Lance could hear the engine again. It was like a cat's purr that slowly got louder and louder until Lance could see them again, just off in the distance. They were closing in fast.

Keith swung out wide and Aurora screamed as they did a half a turn and came to a stop right in front of a dazed Lance who was so shocked by the move he hardly had time to react to it. Aurora jumped off the bike, pulling the helmet off and letting her dark blue hair fall around her shoulders. "That was amazing! Keith oh my god what a rush. Is this what it feels like to be a pilot? Jesus i need to change careers!" Aurora was shouting excitedly. Lance felt even more nervous. "Your turn! Lance it's so cool, the wind feels so nice in your hair." She said shoving the blue helmet into his hands.

"I don't know if I want too."

"Oh come on!" Aurora exclaimed. "It's fun! I swear, like a rollercoaster." Lance pursed his lips, shifting the weight of the helmet from one palm to the other. Keith pulled his helmet off, his hair falling gracefully around his shoulders and neck. He shook it out lightly and Lance felt like he couldn't breathe.

"I won't go that fast if you're scared." Keith said, holding out his hand to Lance. "Don't you trust me?" Lance didn't even need to think of an answer.

"Of course I do." He yanked the helmet down over his head so they wouldn't see him blush. then he grabbed Keith's hand and pulled himself up onto the back of the bike.

"I'll only go faster when you tell me too." Keith said, putting his own helmet back on. Lance kept his hands on his own legs, unsure of what to do. Keith glanced back at him, his visor was flipped up and Lance was glad his wasn't because they would've been staring right at each other. "You might want to hang on." Keith revved the engine and with a sharp intake of breath, Lance latched onto Keith as he took off down the street. Lance felt Keith laugh. "Okay, okay not that hard buddy." Lance loosened his grip slightly and looked up . He hadn't realized he had buried his head in Keith's shoulder.

The landscape was rushing past them but not at the same breakneck speed it had been when Aurora was riding with Keith. Lance straightened up and half smiled. It wasn't that bad. Keith was biting his bottom lip. He actually kind of wanted to go faster so Lance would cling to him as tight as Aurora had when they had ridden together. It was actually part of the reason he had brought them out there. Ever since he had gotten his dad's bike back, all he could think about was riding around on it with Lance and now, they finally were. Just not in the way he had first hoped.

"Okay, you can go faster."

"As fast as Aurora and I had gone?" Keith asked. He felt Lance's grip on his waist tighten slightly and Keith grinned.

"Yes." As soon Lance said that, Keith accelerated and Lance nearly screamed. Watching his friends go this fast and actually doing it himself were two different things. But it wasn't as scary as he had imagined at least. In fact, it was kind of cool. Lance started to laugh. At first Keith was worried that Lance was nervous laughing or laughing because he was scared but then Lance said,

"Woohoo!" And half let go of Keith so he could feel the wind rushing past them with his hand. Keith grinned and instead of slowing into a turn like he had with Aurora when they reached the freeway marker, Keith picked up speed.

Aurora sat on the ground, throwing rocks across the street and she smiled. The boys had been gone for about eight minutes, way longer than she and Keith had been gone for. This had been Keith's plan all along. He wanted Lance to hold onto him on the back of his bike. Aurora laughed lightly as she finally heard the sounds of Keith's hoverbike coming back to Shiro and Adam's house.


	25. And We're Never Going Down

"Can you stop please." Keith begged as Aurora continued to vigorously massage his shoulders.

"What? I'm your hype woman! You can do this Keith. You can ask that stupid boy out. I believe in you." Keith groaned, putting his head in his hands again as Parker continued to search for his book among the shelves, unbothered by his two idiot friends.

"He's not even into guys." Keith grumbled.

"Oh yes he is. I'm bisexual and I can spot a bisexual from a mile away. Lance is an ass guy. He literally looks at everyone's asses, no mater who it is." Aurora paused. "Okay, he doesn't really look at Iverson's ass but that's because he's a bitch." Parker snickered.

"Keep your voice down or you'll get in trouble." Parker said as Aurora finally let go of Keith's shoulders. She waved Parker away and sat back down next to Keith.

"Now, what pick up line did you finally settle on?" Keith blushed red and picked at a loose string on his uniform jacket.

"None of them. They were all stupid. Lance will hate them."

"Are you kidding?" Parker said. "Lance thrives off of dumb pick up lines. He used to always use them when we were Cadets." Keith knew all too well. How many times had he gotten jealous over this fact? How many times had he wished that Lance would say those pickup lines to him?

"Well I don't know. I'm not good at this guys. This is a stupid idea."

"It's not stupid and you need to face your fears. What's the worse Lance could say to you once you tell him you like him?"

"That he hates me and he's not gay and he's going to cut my dick off for even saying that I like him." Aurora and Parker shared a look.

"Jesus Keith you need to calm down. Take a deep breath." Aurora said. Keith inhaled deeply but was so nervous he just held his breath. What if Lance slapped him? What if Lance just stood there? What if Lance called him a faggot? Keith wouldn't know what to do if he did. "Breathe Keith, breathe." Aurora insisted. He exhaled heavily and felt tears begin to well in his eyes. "Lance is a good guy Keith. I know you've been scorned in the past but even if Lance doesn't return your feelings, he's not going to hate you for liking him. He might even be a little smug and say he knew he was attractive to all genders." Keith laughed nervously and wiped at his bleary eyes.

"Yeah, he might." Keith said with a small grin.

"We'll be right here for you buddy if anything bad happens." Parker said.

"Thanks guys. This means a lot." Aurora and Parker nodded.

"Now, as for your pickup line." Aurora said, getting back to the topic at hand. "I really think you should go with the 'Are you Google' one because it's hilarious." Keith smiled.

"I did like that." Keith murmured.

"Good." Aurora shoved him out of the book shelves towards Lance. "Now go get him tiger." Parker chuckled.

"Good luck buddy." Parker said. With his two best friends giving him thumbs up and cheering him on, Keith almost felt like he could do this. He _could_ talk to Lance. He _could_ blatantly flirt with him. Keith could do this.

Taking a deep breath, Keith began to march towards Lance but as he drew closer to him, Keith's confident exterior quickly faded away. Lance had his Garrison jacket unbuttoned, not military style, a gray shirt visible underneath it. He currently had a pencil between his teeth and was typing away at his laptop, occasionally removing the pencil from his mouth to write something down on a nearby notebook. Keith felt his heart thump wildly in his chest. He always liked the look on Lance's face when he was concentrating on something.

"H-hey Lance." Keith said before feeling like an idiot for stuttering. Lance seeing Keith in front of him removed one earbud from his ear.

"Hey Keith." Lance said, not looking up from his laptop.

"Uhh- Hi L-lance." Keith said again. Lance snickered and glanced up at him.

"You good dude? You just said hi." Lance looked back down and Keith shot Parker and Aurora a panicked look. The two of them were pantomiming cheering though, motioning him to continue.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just wanted to talk to you."

"What's up?" Lance said, continuing to write down notes, unaware of Keith's anxious demeanor. Keith scratched the back of his head.

"I uhh.. I just wanted to ask.. Is you.. Are you..." Lance paused his music and removed his headphones all the way.

"Sorry buddy. I couldn't hear what was that?" Lance asked. Keith's face reddened and he swallowed hard.

"Are... Are you Google?" Keith finally blurted out. Lance eyed him quizzically. "Because you have everything I've been searching for." Lance stared at Keith in disbelief and Keith immediately became uncomfortable by his lack of a response. "This was so stupid." Keith whispered and before Lance could stop him, he took off like a shot, out through the bookshelves, down the steps and out of the library, nearly knocking over some other Garrison students as he did.

"Keith!" Lance shouted, standing up quickly, ready to chase after him. Before he could, Aurora and Parker ran up.

"What happened? What did you say?" She demanded. Lance was surprised to see them.

"I uhh.. Nothing. He just said some Google pickup line, said this was stupid and ran off. What just happened? Did you dare him to flirt with me?" Lance asked.

"No." Aurora said indignantly. "Keith really likes you. I told him he should flirt with you a little but I guess he just.. I don't know! Thought your silence was a rejection."

"He didn't give me time to say anything!" Lance exclaimed. "What am I supposed to do? Where would he go?"

"His room, the roof maybe." Parker said.

"Watch my stuff." Land said and before Aurora and Parker could protest, Lance took off after Keith.

His heart was pounding in his chest. Keith liked him? For how long? Why would he just run away? Why wouldn't he let Lance say something? As Lance raced through the halls, he rounded a corner and nearly ran straight into Major General Korson. "General!" Lance exclaimed, fumbling backwards and saluting even though every fiber of his being was telling him to keep running, break protocol, find Keith.

"Cadet McClain!" The Major General exclaimed. "What's the big rush?" He demanded.

"This Cadet is looking for Cadet Kogane sir." Lance replied automatically, hand itching to fall to his side, legs almost shaking with the effort to not abandon protocol.

"Kogane just ran past me. Didn't even pause in my presence. What have you done this time McClain?"

"Not sure yet sir." Major General Korson huffed a little and Lance tried to hold his tongue but he couldn't help it. "Can I go sir? I need to catch up to him."

"He's headed for the roof." That sounded like a dismissal to Lance who took off running again, heading for the nearest staircase. Lance heard the door bang shut as he reached the third floor landing. Just two more floors to go and he could talk to Keith, though he wasn't exactly sure at the moment what he was going to say to him.

Keith felt like screaming as he stood on the roof of the Garrison building. He also kind of felt like throwing himself off into the void but he might just hurt himself instead of die and Keith didn't really want to die anyways, not that badly at least. What the hell was wrong with him? He should have never listened to Aurora and Parker. He should have said something else entirely to Lance and then lied to his friends and say that Lance rejected him but that might have ended up causing a whole mess of other problems in the end. Running his hands through his hair, Keith did the only thing he could think of that wouldn't hurt himself or others, he screamed.

Lance pushed open the door to the roof and heard Keith screaming. He immediately thought something was wrong. But Keith was standing in the middle of the roof, hands in his hair, shouting at the void. When his voice tapered off, the heavy steel door slammed shut behind Lance and Keith turned around wildly. Both of them were breathing hard, unsure of what to say or who should speak first.

"You're not going to start dancing or singing about your feelings right?" God Lance wished he wasn't such an idiot. Keith gave him the strangest look.

"What?" He asked a bit breathily.

"You know, like in Footloose? He screamed a lot, danced out his feelings. Or like high school musical where Zac Efron sang, danced _and_ screamed. This kind of felt like one of those moments." God, Keith was in love with a _dumbass_.

"No I'm not going to dance, or sing Lance."

"Good." Lance said, walking towards him. Keith took a couple steps back. Lance paused. "You going to just try and avoid this conversation by walking off of the roof or something?"

"Maybe." Keith said. Lance made a face.

"Don't joke about that Keith." Lance said, walking forward. Keith didn't move, though he really did want to run past Lance, go inside and avoid him for the rest of his life. As Lance moved closer, step by step, Keith realized that he was wearing a shit eating grin on his face. "So, you just flirted with me."

"Oh my god." Keith groaned.

"You used a pick up line." Lance continued.

"Shut up!" Keith begged, covering his face with his hands so he wouldn't have to look at him.

"A google pick up line no less. Where did you learn that? The internet?" Lance said with a laugh.

"Yes." Keith grumbled.

"That's cute." Keith froze. Cute? Did Lance call him cute? "It's really cute that you would go through all that trouble." Keith peaked at Lance through his fingers and saw that Lance was smiling gently now, the setting sun illuminating his face perfectly and casting long shadows across the roof.

"Shut up. Don't make this worse." Keith grumbled.

"Worse how? How long have you liked me Keith?" Keith ground his teeth. What had Aurora said? Did they talk after he ran out? Should Keith tell the truth?

"A couple months." He found himself lying.

"Before we became friends?"

"Before we became friends." Keith confirmed.

"Jesus Christ Keith." Keith felt his hands being tugged down from his face. Lance was in front of him now and he was holding his hand, squeezing it tightly, just like Keith had always imagined. "Will you just look at me. Why are you so embarrassed?"

"Because you're straight." Keith said, wanting to let go of Lance's hand but being unable to.

"Who said that?" Keith looked at Lance startled and Lance was kid of surprised himself. He hadn't really thought about it much but he did feel something towards Keith, a strong bond that he hadn't been able to shake for the longest time.

"I don't know. I just... You liked Aurora, Lancaster. I'm not exactly your _type_ Lance." Lance grinned and reached out to brush Keith's bangs out of his eyes.

"Yeah you really aren't." Lance said sarcastically. Keith huffed and swatted Lance's hand away.

"Then what are you doing, stop getting my hopes up." Keith said, feeling like his heart was about to break as he turned away from Lance.

"Keith I'm trying to tell you that I literally haven't been able to stop thinking about you since Thanksgiving." Keith was so surprised he nearly tripped over his feet.

"What? No you haven't." Keith argued.

"I'm serious. I had this dumb dream about us where we were holding hands under the table and it felt so real but I woke up on Thanksgiving day and I just stared at you while you slept for like 10 minutes. I didn't know what to think about the dream but its been on my mind for almost a month now. It's also why, not long after, I kept trying to... I don't know, redirect my feelings for you back to Aurora and pissed you off when I made that mess in Chem." Keith blushed red, so red in fact Lance thought he might explode or start spitting fire.

"Shut up." Keith shouted, exasperated. Lance laughed.

"What? Why?"

"Because this isn't real! I'm dreaming! This is all some stupid dream and I'm going to wake up and none of this would have happened." Lance snickered.

"Dream about me often?" Keith turned back around, ready to punch Lance or... Or something! He wasn't exactly sure. He just knew he had to wake the fuck up. But Keith stumbled and nearly fell into Lance who steadied him by putting his hands on Keith's shoulders. Keith wanted to shove Lance away but he couldn't with Lance staring at him like that.

"So you like me?" Keith found himself whispering.

"Yeah. I kind of fell for this mullet of yours." Lance said, moving his hands so he could thread them through Keith's hair.

"Oh shut up." Keith said, putting his arms around Lance's back. Was this actually happening? Was this real?

"Now, are you going to kiss me or what?" Lance said.

"Uhhhhh...."


	26. The Kiss

Lance cupped Keith's face in his hands and kissed him before he could argue or move away. Keith was so taken back he just let Lance kiss him at first. His arms had dropped to his sides and hung limply. Keith's brain was currently displaying the _404 Error_ pagewith flashing red lights and a high pitched buzzing sound. What was happening? "Kiss me." Lance complained pulling back to look at Keith who was bewildered beyond comparison. Keith blinked several times, still very confused but if this really was a dream, he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to kiss Lance. He rarely got to do this in dreams.

Keith threw his arms around Lance's neck who laughed as he wrapped his arms around Keith's waist to steady them so they wouldn't fall but Keith hardly cared as he finally kissed that stupid dimple on his cheek that he had always dreamed about kissing. His lips ghosted over Lance's freckles, across his cheekbones and nose and the gesture made Lance blush hard. "What are you doing weirdo?" Lance asked.

"I've always loved your freckles." Keith said lightly staring at Lance so hard he felt jittery.

"Cool." Lance breathed out.

"And if this is a dream then I'm going to kiss every single one of them." Lance laughed as Keith kissed his lips lightly.

"This is one realistic dream Keith. What would be happening if we were in your room?" Lance asked with a smirk.

"I'd get you to shut up first of all." Keith said before kissing him again, his lips lingering this time. Lance kissed him back, their lips moving against one another. He had never kissed a guy before but it didn't feel any different. In fact, Lance might have even liked kissing Keith better than any of the girls he had had the chance to kiss before. Keith was running one hand down Lance's chest. He could feel Lance's pounding heartbeat beneath his fingers and Keith smiled as he moved his hand father down.

"Oh shit." Lance heard someone say.

"I told you we should've waited longer." Someone else hissed. Lance broke away momentarily to see Parker and Aurora trying to sneak back off the roof. Keith huffed, dropping his head down onto Lance's chest. Any minute now, he felt like he was going to wake back up.

"Heyyyyy guyyssss." Aurora said, drawing out both of the words. "We just wanted to make sure you weren't killing each other or something."

"She's lying!" Parker called out. "She wanted to see if you two were making out." Keith blushed red and wrapped his arms tighter around Lance, loving the feeling of being in his arms.

"Oh shut up. I was curious. I wanted to see if my theory was correct." Aurora said, hitting Parker. "We'll leave now though!" She called back out to her friends.

"What was your theory?" Lance called out.

"That you're an ass guy!" Aurora shouted as Parker shoved her back through the door. It slammed shut behind them. Lance laughed and Keith finally looked back up at him. Lance's hands _were_ dangerously close to Keith's ass. Clearing his throat, Keith stepped away.

"Yeah um.. Sorry." He murmured.

"For what exactly?" Lance said with a smirk.

"Running I guess. I didn't know how you would react and your silence was... Deafening." Lance smiled lightly.

"It's okay Keith." The two of them stood there a bit awkwardly, neither of them knowing what to say next. Keith honestly still felt like he was dreaming. "So, want to go on a date this weekend?"

"Really?" Keith asked, surprised.

"What? Would you rather just make out on the rooftop all the time? Or in each others dorms? Or..."

"Alright, alright." Keith interrupted, blushing hard as Lance laughed. "I guess yeah if you want to." He was subtly pinching the skin on the back of his hand, trying to see if he could feel pain and wincing when he did.

"What are you doing idiot." Lance said, taking his hand again so he would stop hurting himself. Keith frowned. He was bad at being subtle apparently.

"I'm just making sure this is real. I don't want to be disappointed again." Lance squeezed his hand.

"I'm right here Keith, I promise." Keith took a deep breath and nodded. "Do you want to go back inside." Lance checked his watch on his other hand. "Dinner is soon." Keith just nodded as Lance pulled him along. They walked off the roof holding hands, down the stairs, through the hallways and Lance only let go of Keith so he could open the door to the cafeteria. Keith blushed a little as Lance gestured for Keith to head inside.

Keith and Lance moved through the line slowly with all the other kids at the Garrison, everyone holding plastic trays and chatting their friends up. Lance, as always, was talking enough for the both of them. He was practically buzzing from the kiss and was wondering when he would be able to do it next. Would Keith even let him? He hadn't said much since they left the roof.

"You good?" Lance asked, nudging Keith a little. Keith's tray jostled and his water bottle nearly fell down.

"Yeah I.. I'm fine."

"Okay, cutie. Come on, sit next to me." Lance said, gesturing to his side of the table. Keith swallowed hard. He usually sat in between Aurora and Parker, across from Lance, Hunk and Pidge. If he sat next to Lance, the configuration would be off balance. But as if they had known, Keith would sit next to Lance, Pidge was sitting next to Aurora waving her fork around wildly as she argued over something with Aurora and Hunk. Parker smirked as he watched Keith and Lance sit down next to each other.

"Hey Fly Boy." Parker said with a shit eating grin as if he hadn't just witnessed two of his friends sucking face.

"Hey Parker." Keith said quietly.

"So," Hunk said, taking a bite out of his pizza. "Aurora tells us you two kissed." Lance nearly choked on the water he had been drinking. Keith on the other hand, actually did choke a little.

"Aurora." Keith complained as their friends laughed lightly.

"Don't be a baby Kogane." Pidge said, stabbing at her salad with her fork. "We've all expected this for quite some time."

"What?" Lance and Keith asked at the same time.

"Pidge and I have had this running bet that you and Keith would end up together." Hunk said to Lance who was staring at him like he was crazy.

"Since when! I never told you guys I liked him or thought he was cute or whatever." Lance said gesturing to Keith who was still a blushing mess.

"You didn't have to say shit dude." Pidge said. "It was written all over your face every time you talked to him or talked about him or were around him. Hunk and I eventually bet each other how long it would take for you two to just admit you liked one another." Lance was dumbfounded.

"Who.. Who won?" Keith asked. Hunk laughed.

"I did. I said it would take a month or so for you two to get together. Pidge said it wouldn't happen until we graduate."

"That's like four years away Pidge what the heck." Aurora said with a laugh. Pidge shrugged.

"I thought they would be in denial longer. I forgot to factor in you and Parker getting Keith to admit he liked Lance." Aurora and Parker laughed because that's exactly how it had happened. Keith's stomach was churning. He didn't think he would be able to eat right now. Everything had happened so fast. The confrontation, the kiss, the general acceptance of their friends that they were together. When Lance put his hand on Keith's knee, he jumped in his seat, surprised.

"You good Keith?" Keith looked at Lance's wide smile and shimmering blue eyes and calmed down a little.

"Yeah I'm.. I'm okay. Just processing everything." Lance smiled.

"Well, where do you want to go on our date Saturday?" Keith felt his heart skip a beat. He had imagined Lance saying those words to him for far too long. He had also imagined his reply but now that it had actually happened, Keith was at a loss for words. Lance laughed. "How about the arcade? And we go get something to eat too." Keith nodded his head vigorously.

"Sounds nice."

* * *

Lance and Keith were walking hand in hand, heading back to their dorm rooms. Lance as usual was talking Keith's ear off but he didn't really mind that Lance was rambling. It was something Keith had always like about him, that he could just talk and talk and fill the silence. That and, Keith loved the sound of Lance's voice. "That's how I ruined my sisters quinceañera and she hasn't forgiven me for it and it's been like a decade." Lance said with a laugh.

"I wouldn't forgive you either Lance, that's a dick move." Keith said as they came to a stop at his door. Lance let go of Keith's hand and Keith started to bite the inside of his cheek nervously.

"So, you going to invite me in?" Lance asked with a suggestive smile. Keith's eyes widened in surprise and he started to stammer out a reply when Lance laughed. "I'm kidding Keith, kind of. You've just been so quiet. I kind of felt like you haven't been paying attention to me or listening to what I'm saying."

"I am! I promise." Keith said. Lance smiled lightly.

"So what's up then? Why are you so nervous?" Lance asked with a laugh, leaning against the wall in front of the door to Keith's room.

"I'm dreaming, I swear." Keith said, shaking his head. It was dumb. If this was a dream, he would've woken up a long ass time ago. But Keith has had other realistic dreams like this so he couldn't be so sure.

"No you're not."

"Yes I am." Keith insisted. Lance rolled his eyes and reached out to touch Keith's hair, running his fingers through the silky strands. It's something, Lance was finally admitting, he had thought about often.

"I promise you, you're not." Keith bit his bottom lip.

"I'm going to go to sleep and then I'll wake up and none of this would have happened." Keith said. Lance licked his lips.

"How about I text you in the morning? Right when I get up so you'll know this is real?" Keith shook his head.

"I always get up before you and by the time you wake up, I would've freaked out and convinced myself I made it all up."

"Jesus Keith you need to lighten up." Lance said, grabbing Keith by the collar of his uniform and pulling Keith into him. Keith blushed red as Lance gently brushed back Keith's hair so he could see his eyes better. Ever since Aurora's birthday, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about his beautiful eyes. "You're not dreaming, I swear." His hands on Keith's cheeks, Lance leaned in and kissed him and Keith sighed contentedly. "I'll text you first thing in the morning okay?" Lance asked, pulling away. Keith almost didn't want to let him go. If he let him go, he could wake back up and none of it would be real.

"Okay." Keith whispered, despite his fears. Lance kissed Keith's forehead.

"See you tomorrow."

"Bye Lance." Keith waved lightly and Lance grinned, waving as well before disappearing around the corner.

* * *

 _Lance_ 💙  
 _Morning Cutie!_  
 _Still think it's a dream?_

 **Keithy** ❤️  
 **Hi Lance**


	27. Epilogue: They Can't Touch Us Now

_A Couple Months Later_

"They're not going to arrive faster if you keep looking up at the sky." Lance said, nudging Pidge. She flipped Lance off who simply laughed.

"I just can't wait to see my brother and dad. It's been over a _year_ Lance." Pidge said, going back to staring up at the sky. "A year with just my mom. What a nightmare honestly."

"I thought you loved your mom." Keith said with a laugh.

"Oh I do she's just crazy sometimes and over protective and likes grounding me if I hack too far into the Garrison's system." Lance rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry squirt." Aurora said, putting her arm on top of Pidge's head, leaning into her. "They'll be here soon." Pidge elbowed Aurora in the ribs, forcing her to take her arm away as she complained about what a gremlin she was. Keith snickered and looked over at Lance whose eyes were also fixated on the horizon. Keith knew Lance was worried about meeting Shiro but it was no big deal honestly. Shiro was a major idiot. Keith squeezed Lance's hand.

"It's just Shiro. Don't be nervous." Lance rolled his eyes at his boyfriend. _Boyfriend_. He really liked that word. He had been with Keith for over six months now and he _still_ couldn't get over the fact that he could call Keith his boyfriend.

"Just Shiro." Lance scoffed. "The dudes a legend! And I've only met him once! You're the one whose known him half your life." Lance grumbled.

"He's a major dork." Keith said with a laugh. "When you get to know him you'll see."

"Keith's right. If there's one thing my boyfriend is, it's a major dork." Adam said, walking up behind them. Keith grinned and let go of Lance's hand so he could greet Adam.

"Hey! Thought you'd miss this." Keith joked, hugging Adam.

"Are you kidding? My idiot boyfriend is finally coming down. I wouldn't miss this for the world." Keith laughed. "We're never letting him go back up into space Keith, I swear to god." Adam said with a shake of his head just as Pidge's mom arrived as well.

"Maybe you should ask him to marry you then." Keith said. Adam blushed and Lance grinned. When Keith and Lance had started dating, Adam was insistent that none of them ever call him Captain Whitney again, although Aurora still did it on occasion to mess with him.

"It makes me feel old." Adam had admitted. "I'm 25 for gods sake not 40."

"Wait you're only 25?" Pidge had said, making everyone laugh. Adam had just sighed.

"I'll think about it." Adam said simply as Keith nudged him. Keith laughed and walked back to Lance, lacing their fingers together.

"They should be here any minute now." They heard Mrs. Holt say. As if on cue, the friends all heard a loud, whooshing and rushing sound, like air being let out of a really, really big ballon. Slowly, in the sky a shape formed. It was their ship. Pidge, Keith and even Mrs. Holt cheered as they all watched the craft descend. And even though they were two miles out, the wind being pushed out to help them land safely still blew back all of their hair and clothes.

With the ship finally on the concrete and with the ground crew clearing the space crew to exit, everyone rushed towards the craft to welcome home Takashi Shirogane and Matt and Sam Holt. Keith let Adam hug Shiro first, who dropped his helmet on the ground and nearly shattered the visor. "Matt!" Pidge screamed, launching herself at her brother who had grown out his hair into a ponytail for some goddamn reason. Matt laughed loudly as Pidge clung to him kola style and Sam and Collen Holt hugged each other fiercely.

"Oh my god have you gotten bigger Pidge?" Matt teased. "I've missed my favorite sister." Pidge let go of her brother who gently set her down on the ground.

"I'm your only sister asshole."

"Pidge." Collen scolded lightly. Pidge just grinned though and hugged her father next who picked her up and swung her around a little.

"My little girl's all grown up!" He said happily. "You look great honey, the Garrison uniform suits you." Pidge smiled and began to excitedly tell her father about how much she's learned from her first year being at the Garrison.

"Hey, remember me." Someone asked Matt, moving to stand next to him. Matt half turned and felt his heart skip a beat at seeing Aurora next to him, dark blue hair glinting in the sunlight and her brown eyes shining mischievously.

"Uhh.." Matt said, knowing who she was but also not knowing what to say. Talking through a computer and through your sister for half a year was one thing, seeing the girl you kind of sort of had feelings for right in front of you was a whole other thing.

"I think I broke him." Aurora said with a laugh, glancing at Parker.

"Looks that way." He agreed. "Don't worry dude, it happens." Parker said, patting Matt's shoulder. Seeing how hard her brother was crashing, Pidge stepped in.

"Matt this is Aurora, the girl who for some reason, thinks you're cute."

"Not for _some reason_." Aurora argued, rolling her eyes. "Look at him, he's adorable." Matt blushed hard. "It's good to see you back Matt." She said with a smile.

"It's good to be back." Matt said, finally finding his voice. Aurora laughed and Matt's mouth continued to move without his consent. "So you think I'm cute?" Matt said.

"I think you're something." Aurora said with a coy smile

"I'll take something over nothing." Matt said with a grin.

"Barf. You two are making me sick." Pidge said sticking out her tongue and holding her stomach in mock illness.

"Are you ever going to let me go?" Shiro asked, running one hand through Adam's soft curls, the other arm still wrapped protectively around his boyfriends back.

"Not likely. I can't believe you left me here with these _fucking_ kids." Adam complained.

"The kids here aren't that bad." Shio argued. Adam pulled back a small grimace on his face.

"You haven't had to teach Aurora Del la Cruz." Shiro grinned, recognizing the name of the daughter of Major General Korson.

"I'm sure she's not _that_ big of a handful." Shiro said, glancing over at the girl who currently flirting with his other best friend, Matt Holt. Shiro looked beyond Adam's shoulder and spotted Keith, his smile only widened. "Hey little bro, keeping out of trouble?" Shiro asked, approaching him, Lance and Hunk.

"Not in the slightest." Keith couldn't contain his joy any longer, he hugged Shiro who laughed and wrapped his arms around his brothers shoulders.

"I'm sure Adam will give me an earful about it later." Shiro said, glancing back at his boyfriend.

"Actually he wasn't that bad this year. His flight crew helped a lot." Adam said, looking towards Aurora and Parker. "And his boyfriend seems to be able to keep him in check." Keith let go of Shiro and punched Adam in the arm.

"Oh shut up." Keith said as everyone laughed. Shiro glanced towards Lance.

"Hey Lance, nice to see you again." Shiro said, holding out his hand to shake his. Lance stared at Shiro in surprise. How did he know he was Keith's boyfriend? Sure, he was standing next to Keith but so was Hunk. Shiro could have thought Hunk was Keith's boyfriend.

"You recognize me?" Lance asked, shaking Shiro's hand. "We've only met once."

"Well yeah but Keith talked about you constantly." Shiro turned to Hunk. "Good to see you too Hunk." Hunk was also greatly surprised at being recognized.

"Shiro!" Keith shouted, blushing red.

"What? You have?" Lance said, looking towards Keith. "We haven't been dating that long though and you've been up in space this whole time." Lance said. He supposed that Keith could have passed messages to Pidge to send to Shiro but she probably wouldn't be too happy about sending Shiro full paragraphs just about Lance. Keith groaned again, covering his face with his hands as Shiro and Adam laughed at him.

"Shiro can you ever just shut the hell up." Keith complained.

"Sorry buddy." Shiro said with a shrug. "He used to talk about how annoying you were at first and then it turned into how damn cute you were and how Keith wanted to get to know you better." Keith was going to shove Shiro back into that space craft, set the autopilot and send him back to fucking Kerberos if he did not shut the hell up.

"Wait, wait, wait... How long have you had this crush on me Keith? I thought it was just a couple of months." Lance demanded. Keith groaned, unable to stop blushing as he stared at Lance through the gap from his fingers covering his face.

"More like a couple years." Shiro said with a grin, running one hand through his dark hair. "For a while there, you were all Keith could talk about."

"I'm going to strap you to that rocket and send you back up to space Takashi Shirogane! I swear to god!" Keith shouted as Adam and Shiro laughed. Lance blushed hard. A couple of years?

"Jesus Christ Keith? I was a major dick to you and you still liked me?" Lance asked. Keith groaned loudly, throwing his hands in the ai and walking away a little.

"Yeah but you were a cute asshole. Whatever, god fuckin damnit Shiro." Shiro patted Keith's shoulder who shook him off.

"Don't be a baby little bro. I'm glad you finally told him how you felt." Keith muttered something under his breath that made Shiro laugh but Lance hadn't heard what he said.

"Captain Shirogane, please have your flight crew report to the debriefing area." A loud voice called out. everyone looked back towards Major General Korson and snapped to attention.

"Sir, yes, sir." Shiro shouted out with a salute. Aurora waved at her father who smiled and waved back before turning away. "We can all talk later but right now we have some things to take care of. See you soon?" Shiro said, kissing Adam lightly.

"In exactly thirty minutes or I'll march into that debriefing room and drag you out Takashi." Shiro laughed lightly. "You've been gone too long, you need to come home." Shiro grinned. Home. He liked the sound of that.

"And I'll give you my number later." Aurora said to Matt.

"L-later? Not now?" He asked. Aurora laughed.

"What? I won't forget and I doubt you will either." Matt blushed. He really wouldn't. Together, everyone watched as Sam, Matt and Shiro headed inside the base but Lance still wanted to talk to Keith.

"How many years?" Keith groaned.

"God Lance, please drop it." He begged.

"Oh come on, I want to know." Lance said, taking Keith's hand.

"If you don't tell him I will." Aurora sang out. Lance looked to her.

"Please tell me."

"Aurora, no!" Keith snapped at her. Lance groaned and everyone else laughed. Keith's grip on Lance's hand tightened and then he started to drag Lance away from everyone so they wouldn't hear him. When they were finally a safe distance away, Keith let go of Lance's hand and started to pace back and forth in front of his boyfriend.

"That long huh?"

"Shut up Lance. Yeah, it was that long. You were cute and nice and you used a dumb pickup line." Keith said waving one hand in the air dramatically. Everything clicked in Lance's mind and his eyes widened.

"Wait, are you talking about when we were junior cadets? The first time we met?" Lance asked. Keith winced. He had hoped Lance wouldn't remember.

"Yeah." He admitted. Lance laughed a little.

"Oh my god, Keith."

"Yeah I know. It's dumb, laugh it up." Lance shook his head, smiling.

"That's not why I'm laughing. That moment is actually why I began to sort of dislike you." The tension in Keith's shoulders fell as he gave Lance a funny look.

"What? Why?" He demanded. Lance shrugged

"It was embarrassing. I flirted with a boy. I didn't know you so I thought you might tell other people and everyone would make fun of me and call me gay. It scared the shit out of me." Lance said. "I resented you _and_ your mullet that day." Lance said, reaching out and tucking a strand of Keith's hair behind his ear.

"What? that's dumb. I literally only ever told Shiro, Adam and then Parker and Aurora when they asked how long I liked you." Lance shrugged.

"I didn't know that back then. Though I did begin to suspect you never said anything as the years went by but still... It kind of felt like you could blackmail me at any moment." Keith scoffed at him.

"Why would I do that. You are literally the cutest boy I've ever met." Lance grinned as Keith blushed.

"Thanks babe. You're pretty cute too." Lance took a step closer to him and Keith immediately moved in to put his arms around Lance's neck. Lance's arms came around his waist as they leaned in. "I love you." Lance murmured.

"I know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have just had... Possibly the best or the worst idea ever of a sequel to this story called "Another Night On Mars" (also a song by The Maine) where I would write about the gang and my child Aurora maybe a bit older going on missions in space, meeting aliens, meeting Allura and Lotor, getting into trouble like.... That just sounds like so much fun and I want to write it.


End file.
